


Things that go boom in the night...

by charlymo



Series: Things that go boom in the night... [1]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), olicity - Fandom
Genre: F/M, Kidnapping, Sexual Content, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-11
Updated: 2015-04-25
Packaged: 2018-03-22 07:49:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 25,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3720973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/charlymo/pseuds/charlymo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A mission tracking prolific carjackers goes awry and Felicity is temporarily deaf after an explosion.  Oliver gets all protective and the mystery is where did the boom come from?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fan fic and this story kind of stuck in my head. I don't know where it's going or how long it will be....I'm just kind of going with what my head tells me.
> 
> I was asked for the "after"...so I wrote When everyone finds out..

"Felicity!" Oliver yelled.

"Felicity!" Digg yelled over Oliver.

"Guys! Hey guys! I found her! She's over here!" Roy said from halfway across the warehouse.

Diggle and Oliver took off at a run from where they had safely put Felicity to where Roy was helping her halfway across the building. Roy was bent down talking to her but the look on his face was one of confusion. Oliver reached her first and bent down running his eyes over her making sure she was okay. His hands followed where his eyes had been just so he would feel better knowing that she wasn't hurt. Other than a few scrapes and scratches, she seemed to be fine.

"Felicity, are you okay?" Oliver asked her.

She just looked up at him with big eyes and started to tear up. "I can't hear! Why can't I hear? I see you and Roy talking to me but I can't hear what you're saying!"

"Hey, it's okay." He told her gathering her into his arms and stroking her hair to calm her down. He pulled back and looked at her again saying slowly, "Let's get you back to the Foundry so we can get checked out."

She must have understood him because she nodded her head and he scooped her up to carry her to the van. She started to protest but the look on his face stopped her before any words could come out.

They were silent on the way back or maybe it was just her. She was tired and sore and the loud ringing in her ears was inducing a headache. She just leaned more into Oliver and he tightened his arms around her and she dropped her head to his shoulder. He was stroking her back and she soon realized that he was talking to Digg or Roy because she could feel his chest rumbling under her hand.

They pulled up in the alley and he didn't put her down until they were in front of the med table. He set her down softly and she saw Digg moving to get the medical supplies. Digg then moved Oliver out of the way so he could check all of her vitals. Everything looked good so he moved to get the gauze and antiseptic ready to clean and bandage her cuts, when Oliver was right back in front of her. He wasn't fighting him on this so he just passed everything over so he could do it.

Oliver used two shaking fingers under her chin to get her to look up at him. "Felicity, I'm going to clean you up now, it might sting a little."

She grabbed his shaking hands in both of hers saying, "Oliver, this is not your fault. We couldn't have known that the carjackers would have explosives. That hasn't been there M.O. in any of their previous jobs and look, I'm okay. Well, as okay as I can be considering I can't hear anything but ringing in my ears."

He smiled at her and took a calming breath, squeezing both of her hands, "I know but when you weren't where we left you, I just, I panicked. I don't want to ever experience that again okay? Now, this might sting a little bit." He said picked up the antiseptic bottle.

She shook her head, "No, how about a shower first? I mean me take a shower, not with you, I know you have to take one too but just me alone, not us together. 3..2..1...I mean it doesn't make sense for me to get my face clean when I'm still dirty. I can take a shower and get everything clean and then I can get patched up otherwise it's just crazy because then I'll have to concentrate on not getting my face wet and washing off all the medicine and then I'll have to make sure that no shampoo falls down and--"

Oliver touched her shoulder and she stopped, looking up at his face. "That's actually a good idea. Go on in and if you need anything, we'll be close by." She looked from him to Diggle and Roy who were both nodding their heads in agreement.

She slid off the table and lost her balance, Oliver caught her around the waist and straightened her up. She looked down and realized she only had one shoe on. Not really caring at that point, she toed the other one off and made her way slowly to the bathroom.

Oliver, Digg, and Roy watched her walk away and then looked at each other. Silently, they moved around putting up their equipment and keeping an ear out for Felicity in case she called out for one of them.

"Oliver, we're going to need her to look at footage as soon as she's able. She was right when she said that there was nothing in our intel that said they would have any type of explosives. These guys are carjackers, why would they even have anything like that?"

"I know," Oliver responded looking back at the bathroom door when he heard the shower turn on, "but only when she's comfortable doing it. I don't want to push her."

"Neither do I," Roy piped in, "but I don't want to ever see Blondie like that again so the sooner we can get information about what's going on, the happier I'll be."

They all went about putting the rest of their equipment away, and Digg called Lyla and Roy called Thea letting them know what happened. They were all lost in the own thoughts when they heard a "dammit" come from the bathroom. Oliver ran to the bathroom door and knocked to see what she needed when Diggle reminded him that she couldn't hear.

"But I need to see if--"

Oliver was cut off by the bathroom door flying open with Felicity standing there in nothing but a towel, her skin flushed from the heat of the shower, hair still wet and he thought she'd never looked more beautiful.

"Oh, hey, um, I don't have anything but a torn, dirty dress to put on and that would kind of defeat the purpose of the shower. Can I borrow something of somebody's please?"

"Sure," Oliver moved over to where he kept extra clothes and got out a Henley and Roy threw him a pair of sweats from his foot locker.

"What?" Roy asked when Oliver just looked at them, "you two are much bigger than her and it wouldn't take much for her to drawstring those up."

Oliver walked back to the bathroom door where Digg was looking at Felicity's freshly washed face and handed her the clothes. He looked over at Digg who said, "She's lucky, just a few scrapes that we need to make sure all the bacteria is out of and she'll be as good as new."

Oliver let out a breath that he didn't know he was holding as Felicity shut the door. Digg turned and looked at Oliver and asked, "Do you think you can patch her up? I really want to get home to Lyla and Sara, I think I could use a good baby hug right now."

"Yeah, and I've already called Thea and told her that as soon as we knew Felicity was okay, I'd be by to pick her up. Hit a few parties and raves tonight and see if we can learn anything."

"Sounds good, you two go on ahead. Digg, see if Lyla can get anything from her ARGUS contacts and Roy as soon as you and Thea find out anything, let me know."

Roy and Diggle left as Oliver made sure that he had everything ready. He was finished and leaning up against the table when he heard Felicity's phone ring, it was Captain Lance.

"Queen," Quentin said quickly when Oliver answered, "why are you answering her phone? I'm at the warehouse and saw a couple of arrows so you want to tell me what happened and why are you answering Felicity's phone?"

"Captain, she's fine but she can't hear. We think it's temporary but won't know for sure until she can see a doctor tomorrow. As far as the warehouse, we were tailing a carjacking ring, Digg and Felicity were in the van and managed to cut them off and they ran into it. They always seem to have a spotter who we couldn't find so Digg brought Felicity inside putting her behind some crates and barrels. I had one end, Roy had the other and Digg had the floor covered. There was an office up some stairs so we figured that's where they were. Next thing we see is all of them running down the stairs and towards the other end of the warehouse. Roy told us in the van on the way back here that after the guys started running, one of them yelled at where Felicity was. She came out from behind the barrels and started running too. The next thing was an explosion and with the exception of the car they left behind, they were gone and we were trying to find Felicity."

 

Quentin sighed and said, "We've been getting information from some of our CIs about a threat in the area. They didn't have anything specific but I'm thinking that this is it. Once we get the scene processed, I'll email Felicity everything we have and see what she can do with it."

"Thank you and whatever we find out on our end, we'll keep you in the loop." Oliver assured the older man as he heard the bathroom door open.

As he ended the call, he looked over at her and had to remind himself to breathe. He'd never been a possessive man but seeing Felicity in his shirt brought about all kinds of primal instincts that just washed over him in a wave.

She was looking around for him until she finally spotted him by her computers. She must have had a confused look on her face because he walked over to her and took her face in his hands saying, "Your phone was ringing and it was Captain Lance. He's at the warehouse and noticed we'd been there. I let him know what was going on and he said he'd email you everything they process but right now come sit and let's get you cleaned up."

He took her hand and led her over to her chair that was now by the med table. He eased her down into it and sat on a stool in front of her, reaching for cotton balls and antiseptic. She sat back, closing her eyes as Oliver administered to all the scrapes and scratches, treating them and giving her a couple of small bandages. She slowly opened her eyes when he stopped touching her.

"Hey, give me a few minutes to put all this away and I'll drive you home." Oliver told her as he went about putting up all the medical supplies.

"No, I don't want to go home. I'll just stay here, you can set the code for the door when you leave."

"Felicity, I am not leaving you here. You are tired and sore and--"

Felicity put her hand on his arm to turn him around. "I see your lips moving but I have no idea what you just said. Probably something about me not staying here but Oliver, I can't go home. I can't hear and at least no one can get in here without the code and my computers are right there. I can tap a few keys and see everything, inside and out. I don't know if I can deal with any more surprises tonight and it's just until I can hear again anyway. It's not like I'm moving in forever."

He stops what he's doing and looks down at her. He always forgets how small and fragile looking she is because her personality is so large it overwhelms you. She's barely keeping her eyes open and bruises are starting to show. He reaches over and cups her cheek and she looks up at him, "How about a compromise? You don't want to go home and I don't want you to stay here. I'll take you home with me, there is plenty of room and Thea won't mind having a female around."

"Oliver, that's nice of you to offer but I don't want to trouble anybody. This place is like Fort Knox--"

"Felicity, it's no trouble and I'll feel better knowing where you are and if you need anything both Thea and I will be right there. You'd have to text someone if you needed something here."

"Oliver--"

"Felicity, you only have two choices. Your apartment with me staying until your hearing returns or a nice, big, comfortable loft with two badass Queens who will take care of you. So which one is it?"

"I'm too tired to argue with the whole bossy attitude you have going on right now so I pick the loft because you are way to big for my apartment and can someone take me there to get some things? I mean I appreciate the clothing and this shirt is really comfy and soft and smells like you but these pants are way too baggy and look at how I had to roll up the hem just so I could walk. I don't have any essentials and--"

He stilled her with his hand moving to her other cheek so he framed her face again, "As soon as you wake up tomorrow, either me or Dig will take you to get whatever you want, okay?"

"Okay, can we go now?" She said through a yawn.

"Yes, let me grab the keys, your purse and then we'll be off."

He grabbed everything and then picked her up bridal style to carry her up the stairs. He knew that she was tired when instead of giving him a glaring look or sassy comment on being independent, she just sighed and snuggled her head deeper into the crook of his neck. He put her in the car and buckled her in for the ride home being careful not to jostle her anymore than necessary. And if the whole ride he had a big goofy smile on his face because she liked that his shirt smelled like him, who was going to notice?

He called Thea when he got to the parking garage to let her know where they were. She told him that she was at Roy's getting some sleep because nothing really started happening in the Glades until after midnight.

"Speedy, you two please be careful. I'll call John and let him know where we're both at and you call and let Laurel know. If you get into any trouble, call one of us to help. Felicity doesn't want to be left alone but we can always go back to the Foundry if we need to. Regardless, call me as soon as you hear anything." He looked over at Felicity who was still sound asleep.

"Ollie, we shouldn't be running into any trouble. We're just going to a couple of parties and maybe a rave so see if we can get information from anybody. We promise to be careful and to call the minute anything seems important. Right now Roy's asleep and I'm not far behind. He said sometimes these parties can go into the early hours and we don't want to be tired. How's Felicity doing?"

"Asleep, which is a good thing, it will help her body heal faster. Get some sleep and call me when you get in tomorrow morning." He heard a little huff at that but told her, "I'm still your brother and I worry, okay?"

"Okay Ollie," Thea said with a little laugh, "you get some sleep too and I'll call first thing in the morning."

Hanging up with Thea, he moved around the car to get Felicity from the passenger seat. She mumbles something unintelligible and burrows her body as close to him as she can. He smiles again when she does that, knowing that she trusts him to protect her even when she's unconscious. He grabs her bag and after locking the doors, takes her upstairs.


	2. Chapter 2

She awakes with a start. She's disoriented and when she tries to move to look around, her head starts pounding and she's sore all over. She glances to her right and sees a clock on a nightstand but has to squint to see the numbers since she doesn't have her glasses on.

1:30 am

Think Felicity, think she tells herself. Okay, she remembers leaving the Foundry around 6 pm to go the the warehouse and then everything comes flooding back to her. Digg putting her where she'd be safe, the explosion, the return trip to the Foundry, the argument with Oliver about where she would stay, well, now she knows where she's at, that's something. She sits perfectly still and realizes how quiet it is, and now she remembers why she was arguing with Oliver. That's why her head is pounding and the damn ringing in her ears won't stop.

She moves to get off the bed and an arm reaches out to stop her. She's startled for a minute until she realizes it's Oliver. He removes his hand and she feels the bed shift as he gets off of it. He comes around and turns on a lamp on the nightstand. She blinks a little at the sudden brightness and she looks up to see him kneeling in front of her.

"Hey," Oliver says looking way too good with sleepy eyes and shirtless.

"Hi," Felicity responds looking down at his torso. She's seen it countless times but never this up close and personal except when she had to bandage him up but that was kind of clinical so she saw it but really didn't see it. She shoots her eyes back up quickly before he sees her but seeing his lips uptick ever so slightly, she knows he saw her. She decides to ignore it and manages to croak out, "um, what exactly happened?"

He holds up a finger and reaches over to the nightstand. He hands her a glass of water and some pills. She looks up at him and he tells her, "Here, drink a little and take these. It's just ibuprofen not Digg's aspirin but you have to be sore and it might help dull the pain a little."

She gratefully took both and after swallowing the pills, asked again in a much clearer voice what happened. He explained everything he knew and repeated things said at the Foundry in case she was too tired to remember them. He also let her know that he'd called Digg and Thea.

"What about Laurel?" She interrupted him asking.

"Thea called her right after I got off the phone and once I got you settled, she ended up calling me. Laurel said that she had a couple of informants inside some gangs and in the prison system. We decided it would be best that she work that angle, Digg and Lyla work any angle that ARGUS may have and Roy and Thea have the Glades covered."

"Oliver, I'm sorry. I know you'd rather be out there looking for whoever this is and instead you're here taking care of me." Her voice cracked on that last part and her head fell to her chest, not wanting to look at him anymore.

"Hey, hey, hey," He picked her chin up and made her look at him, "I do want to know what's going on but there is nothing the Arrow can do. We've got every angle covered and Laurel even informed Lance of exactly what we're all doing so that no one is overlapping each other. I almost lost you tonight and I don't trust anyone else to take care of you, okay? I'm right where I want to be."

His hand dropped from her face and his thumbs were now rubbing circles on her knees. All of a sudden she blushed and her hand went to her mouth to cover a little squeak. He instantly went on alert asking, "Felicity, what's wrong?"

"Uh, um, no, I mean, um, nothing, oh frack, Oliver," she said stumbling over her words, "didn't I leave the Foundry with pants on?"

It took him a couple of seconds to get past the adrenaline rush of thinking something was seriously wrong before he gave a huff of laughter. " You did. After talking to Laurel, taking a shower and getting the water and pills set by the bed, I laid down. I swear it wasn't two minutes later I thought you were having a seizure. Your eyes popped open, you were kicking your legs back and forth and when I touched you to calm you, you told me in your loud voice to get these damn pants off of you NOW! I wasn't going to argue with the loud voice so I threw the covers back and snatched them off. You turned right back over and went to sleep and I covered you back up. If you want them, they are right here." he motioned behind him to a chair in the corner, "Or Thea's room is just down the hall and she wouldn't mind if you borrowed something."

"Are you sure? She may have favorites or something and might not want anyone to bother them." Looking around him with a frown at the chair and not really wanting to put Roy's pants back on.

"Felicity," He turned her face back to him again, "go down the hall and use whatever you want. She won't mind and if she does, she likes to shop so she can get new ones." She seemed to hesitate so he gently pulled her hands and she stood up.

"Okay but if she gets mad, I'm blaming you." Felicity told him as she walked into the hallway. A couple of doors down was Thea's room, she went in and turned on the light switch. She looked around and made a beeline for what she hoped was the closet and went to the built in dresser. After opening the third drawer, she found the underwear. Praying that Thea would be okay with it, she found a pair that still had the tag on it. She almost dropped them when she saw the price but modesty outweighed any guilt so she removed the tag and slipped them on. Reminding herself to ask Thea later where she got them because they felt heavenly, she turned off all the lights and walked back towards the bedroom she came from.

Oliver was standing at the window looking out over the city and she just stopped and stared. Low slung cotton running pants and nothing else made her mouth go dry. Why did the man have to look so damned good? He watched her watching him and to be honest he couldn't have turned around at that moment even if he wanted to. He saw her reflection in the window and she was still wearing his Henley and nothing else. Didn't she go to try and find pants? Did Thea not have any that fit? He was having a hard time slowing his breathing as he saw her blatantly staring at him. He couldn't stand like this all night so he turned slowly so she wouldn't be surprised. It seemed to break the spell because she shook her head a little bit and walked on into the room.

Oliver looked her up and down and when he got back to her face asked, "Did Thea not have anything? I told you to borrow whatever you need, it can easily be replaced if that's what you're worried about."

"What?" She said looking down, "oh, I didn't want any pants I was looking for underwear. I guess mine were dirty and I never put them back on but she had some new--"

"Underwear?" Oliver asked. He closed his eyes and sent up a small prayer because this woman was going to be the death of him by babbling on about underwear. Roy was never getting those pants back and he'd been lying next to her that last few hours with nothing between them but his shirt. The exact same shirt that she still had on. Lust, pure lust, came over him for just a second and it took quite a bit of his self control to just stand there.

"Ones and I didn't think that she'd miss just one pair but if she does Oliver, you have to let me know so I can pay her back." She finished looking back up at him. "Oh, did you say something?"

"Oh, no, no, nothing important." He replied quickly so she would drop this particular subject. He didn't know if he could continue with that conversation so he asked, "do you want to go back to sleep or do you want to try to eat something?"

"I'm not really hungry."

"Okay," Oliver said moving out of the way so she could get into bed.

Felicity moved around the bed and laid down, pulling the covers up over her and snuggling down into it with a contented sigh. "Oliver, you have to tell me where Thea got this bed. I'm sure I couldn't afford it but anytime you need a house sitter let me know. This bed is so comfy and soft."

He walked over to the nightstand to turn off the light, bent down to her and said, "She won't know, this is my bed--"

"WHAT?" Felicity all but yelled as she sat up quickly, "what do you mean, YOUR bed?" Her eyes darted around the room and she noticed little things here and there that were Oliver's. A jacket hanging over the back of the desk chair, a picture of him and Thea when they were younger sitting on a shelf, and now she realized why she felt so comfortable. It wasn't just his shirt that smelled like him, it was the entire room. She was nice and cocooned in an Oliver bubble and she had to admit, it was great.

Her eyes went back to Oliver and he had a smile on his face telling her, "Yes, my bed. I knew you'd be asleep for a while and this is the only bed in the loft that I'm comfortable in. So I could have put you in one of the guest rooms but then I would have been tossing and turning and that would have woken you up when you really need to sleep."

"Oliver, why would you need to sleep with me?" She blushed furiously when it dawned on her what she said but she pressed on, "I mean, you know what I mean, I don't understand. Couldn't have you just checked on me in one of the guest rooms?"

"Felicity, it is my duty to keep you safe and that didn't happen tonight." He put his hand up to hold off her argument, "And it's for my benefit mainly that I want you here with me, in case you wake up like you did a few minutes ago disoriented. I can hear you if you're in distress and you called out for me but you wouldn't be able to hear me in return. I want to make sure that you get whatever you want or need when you need it."

She looked at him for a few moments and knew that it made him feel better to have control over something so she just said, "Okay, but seriously, when I can hear again, we will be having a conversation about what you can and can't control."

To Oliver's relief, she lay back down and burrowed back into the comforter again. When he turned off the light and made his way to the other side of the king sized bed, he had the biggest smile on his face because his mind was replaying her saying that she was cocooned in an Oliver bubble and how great it was.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I kind of like slow burns and I know this may be really slow for some. Also in this, there is no Ra's but there was a Felicity/Ray relationship. I know that some in the fandom don't like Laurel but she's useful to my story. I've finally got this all mapped out and questions will be answered as I go along.
> 
> Also, thanks to everyone who left kudos or sent me a comment. I've been reading fan fiction for a while now and I had this idea so I posted it as a birthday present to myself. All the love you've sent my way is fantastic so thank you!

He woke quickly but didn't move and his body was on alert. What woke him up? He listened for sounds but nothing sounded out of the ordinary. He didn't sense that anyone was in the loft so---then he looked down. Somehow Felicity had moved from her side of the bed to his and she was trying to wrap herself around him. Her head was on his shoulder, arm around his waist and one of her legs was between his. He bit his lip when he realized his shirt that she was wearing had rode up and he could feel the lace of her underwear on his upper thigh. Swallowing hard, he tried to move her and she just tightened her arm around his waist. He picked up her arm and she whimpered in her sleep, moving her body closer to his side. Well, if that's where she wanted to be, who was he to deny her? Slowly turning her to her side, he positioned them where he was spooning her from the back. One arm under her head, he used the other one to bring the comforter back up over them. He was trying to tuck it up around her chest when she grabbed his hand in hers and brought it up to rest near her chin. All he could think in that moment was how perfect this was and he drifted back to sleep.

Felicity had never been so warm in all of her life. She grew up in Vegas but that was a hot and sticky heat, no she was warm and comfortable and she didn't want to move but she had to. Mother Nature was calling, it was still dark outside and she had no idea where a bathroom was. She went to turn over and wake Oliver and realized why she was so warm, he was literally surrounding her. They were plastered together, her back to his front, their legs tangled and his face was in her hair, nose pressed to her neck. Lord, how many nights had she actually dreamed about this? Now her stupid bladder wanted to go and mess everything up.

"Oliver," she whispered, he moved a little but he got even closer to her if that was even possible. He was running his nose up and down her neck giving her goosebumps.

"Oliver," she whispered again and she sensed more that she saw him wake up. He tensed up for a few seconds, then relaxed and moved back so that she was flat against the bed with him hovering above her. The city lights through the floor to ceiling windows cast a bluish glow on his face and she saw his lips move. Once again she was reminded that she couldn't hear but she did notice that her headache was gone.

"I don't know what you said but nature calls and I don't know where the bathroom is."

He leaned away from her to turn on the light and she shivered from the loss of body heat. He untangled their legs and moved to sit over the side of the bed. She moved and sat beside him as he rubbed his face with his hands. She looked over at the clock and it was only 3:57. They'd only been asleep for a little over two hours.

He was looking at her when she looked from the clock to him and asked, "Do you want to try to eat something now? I'm not exactly sure what we have but I can check while you're in the bathroom."

He got up and started walking across the room and she moved to follow. He opened a door and turned on the light and she turned to look up at him, "If you have some leftovers or a sandwich, I could probably eat that but I'm just tired right now and want to sleep. If my bladder hadn't woken me up, we'd still be in bed." She didn't see the way his eyes darkened at that because she was turning to shut the bathroom door. She looked back up at him expectantly and he said, "I'll go see what we have and bring it up okay?"

She shook her head saying, "Oliver, I can come downstairs to eat--"

"Felicity, you are barely standing as it is, if I bring the food to you, you can eat what you want and then lay right back down. If you go downstairs, you'll have to climb them to come back up to get back in bed. So which do you prefer?" He replied as he cocked one eyebrow at her.

"Fine, I'll eat up here but please find something simple. I'm really not all that hungry." she told him as she shut the door.

Felicity leaned back against the door and sighed. She had enough fantasies of Oliver without adding one of him half naked bringing her food in bed, his bed, she thought as she face-palmed. 

Oliver quickly made it to the kitchen to see what was in the fridge. He spotted leftover Chinese but if she wasn't really hungry, she might not eat the tangy chicken. He was going to make sure she ate something because the last thing he remembers her eating was some Big Belly burgers that Digg had picked up when they'd met outside her building. She had back to back conference calls with Palmer and other subsidiaries and that had been close to one o'clock yesterday afternoon, she hadn't eaten in almost fifteen hours. Keeping it simple, he grabbed the grape jelly, some English muffins, toasted them up and slathered them with the jelly. He stuck with water to keep her hydrated and went back upstairs.

He pushed open the door and saw her sitting in the middle of the bed with the covers around her waist, looking out the windows. She turned and smiled when she saw his reflection and he walked to the bed, putting the tray down in front of her.

"Grape jelly on muffins, think you can eat some of this?"

"Yep," she said, popping the p, "I must be hungrier than I thought because my stomach growled a few minutes ago."

"Good, eat and then you can get some more rest. I'm going to get some more water and pills to put by the bed in case you need them." He told her then turned to walk towards the bathroom.

"Wait, you're not going to eat with me?"

"Sure," he came back to the bed, sat down and grabbed one of the muffins. They sat in comfortable silence for about a minute when he sensed her tensing up. He looked down at her and she was chewing on her muffin slowly and her head was tilted to the side. He then watched as her brow line scrunched up and popping the last of his muffin in his mouth, he chewed it and touched her arm. She turned to look at him and he asked, "What's wrong?"

She finished with the bite she had and replied, "We really need to find out when my hearing is coming back. The ringing stopped and my head doesn't hurt anymore but I can hear myself chew. This is not good, I like food and have you ever listened to yourself chew? It's a very annoying sound."

He bit the inside of his lip to stop from laughing because she really did look worried, "Felicity, you have a doctor's appointment in the morning so stop worrying."

"I don't even want to know how you managed to do that." She replied with a yawn.

"Are you done?" He asked, at her nod, he removed the tray and set it over on his desk. She watched as he went from the desk into the bathroom and shut the door. She must have drifted off for a minute because the next thing she knew the room was dark and the bed was dipping as he got in it.

"Oliver?" She asked quietly and she felt the bed move again as he went to turn the light on. She stopped him with a hand on his bicep. 

"I will understand if you say no, but can we sleep like we were earlier? You're just so warm and I know that I shouldn't ask--" Felicity's mouth snapped shut when Oliver pulled her to him and adjusted to covers over them. She felt him whisper sleep against her temple as he settled down behind her. As she drifted back to sleep, she couldn't help but think that she could get used to this.

He felt her relax and fall into a deep sleep but Oliver couldn't. There were too many things going through his mind. First and foremost was the woman beside him. This felt right, she wasn't with Ray anymore even though she still worked for him. He didn't ask why when Digg told him about the break up but he was hopeful. She was right all those times she said it was her life, her choice and when she chose Ray and he was doing the same thing Oliver was, he started rethinking about pushing her away. He could protect her and love her. Second thing was this life was dangerous and even though Digg had put her out of harm's way and she didn't leave the Foundry for a mission unless necessary, he almost lost her tonight for events that they had no knowledge of or control over. Third, why were there explosives in the first place? These were simple carjackers who used guns but had never fired a single shot at any of their victims much less had any use for whatever blew up that warehouse.

He kept replaying the night over and over in his head trying to fish out any details that might be helpful until he felt Felicity jerk and whimper in her sleep. Oliver looked down and her face was all scrunched up and he realized she was having a nightmare. Slowly so that he wouldn't spook her, he gradually tried to wake her up. Her eyes were moving quickly behind her eyelids and her breathing was becoming more rapid. She jerked some more until she finally shot straight up and screamed his name. Fear like he'd never known before coursed through him when she did that. He'd never seen her like this but he was right in front of her, his hands on her face, running his fingers up and down her cheeks until she finally calmed down. He tried easing her back down onto the mattress but she resisted.

"Oliver, wait, wait," She whispered and he could still hear the fear in her voice, "why were they running?"

He moved away from her long enough to turn the bedside lamp on, she blinked at the sudden brightness but looked up at him. His heart thudded in his chest when she did, her pupils were blown wide with fear and her pulse was beating rapidly at her throat.

"Felicity, it was just a nightmare, I'm here, you can go back to sleep."

"No, why were they running? They saw me when they were running by me but I could tell they weren't after me, they looked scared." She said looking at him, waiting for him to respond.

Oliver didn't know what to say. They saw her and could have hurt her even though they hadn't hurt anyone up to that point. There was a first time for everything and he was fixated on that fact when Felicity shook him.

"Oliver!, Oliver!, are you listening to me? Why didn't they try to hurt me or use me as a shield to get away from you guys? I was right there and where did they even come from? I was watching the stairs and they didn't come from that direction. All I know is that they were running past me as fast as they could and then the big one yelled at me to run. Why would he do that?" She asked with a confused look on her face.

"Felicity, I saw them break through a window and jump on crates to get to the ground and then they broke into a run. What do you mean when you said the big one told you to run?"

"I stayed where Digg told me and then I just saw them a few moments later. When I looked over to where they just seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, they just started running and since they were running where I knew you were positioned, I thought they were coming after you. But they weren't, the big one saw me crouching behind the barrels and told me to run. He had a look of pure terror on his face. Oliver," she said quickly as she grabbed his biceps, "I don't think they knew it was there! Remember, Digg and I cut off their escape route with the van at one end of that alley and you and Roy were behind them. I don't think that was their base, we cut them off--"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I remember that he reminded me of Jim, you know the security guard that worked mornings at QC before he retired?" She reminded him when he brow crinkled up, "Anyway, his build reminded me of Jim and I thought it was odd at the time for the bad guy to be helping me but then it registered that he had genuine look of fear on his face. I know that Digg told me not to move and I didn't want to get in anybody's way, but my gut told me to move so I listened to it and ran. Then the explosion happened and knocked me over and then Roy found me."

"I'm happy that you wanted to listen to Digg but I'm happier that you listened to your gut, it probably saved your life. I'm going to call the team and let them know what you told me. Maybe it can help narrow things down since now it would seem there are two threats to the city. We need to find these carjackers and find out what they saw." Oliver started moving away, reaching for his cell phone.

"Okay, I'll call Lance and let him know so he can get the police--" She stopped suddenly looking around.

He turned and looked at her; she was looking around for her phone. He went back to the bed and touched her shoulder. She looked up at him with wide eyes, "Felicity, you can't hear remember? I'll call Laurel first and she can get in contact with her dad and then let everyone else know."

She fell back on the bed with an ummphh, "Yeah, I keep forgetting that."

Oliver turned away and called Laurel and then Digg. As he was talking to him, he glanced over and noticed that not only was she sound asleep again, but her hand was on his pillow. He really needed to talk to her but he wanted to wait until she could hear. He got off the phone with Digg who told him he'd call Roy and Thea and got back into bed. By the clock it was almost 5 am and the sun would be up in a couple of more hours. He picked up her hand and laid it on his chest as he settled in. She sighed and moved closer to him in her sleep. Yep, he kept thinking, this was definitely good.


	4. Chapter 4

Four hours later they were up and dressed after Lyla and Digg went by her apartment and picked up her go bag. The four of them were sitting in the kitchen discussing what everyone knew when Thea and Roy came in the door.

"Hey everybody." Thea said with a yawn.

"So did you guys find out anything?" Digg asked.

"No," Roy replied as he walked over to the island, "if there is something going on, it's not based out of the Glades. A few rumblings about things moving through but nothing stays long enough for anybody to know exactly what it is."

He stopped in front of Felicity and asked, "How you doing Blondie?"

"Well, as long as people look at me to talk I'm fine and Lyla is taking me to the doctor to get checked out. Which, by the way," Felicity said turning to Lyla, "we need to get going if we're going to make it."

Lyla laughed and told Felicity, "Relax, she's an old friend of mine and she'll make time for us once we get there but I know you're ready so boys," she turned to Digg, kissing him, "take care, call if anything changes and let Thea and Roy sleep as much as they can. We don't have any idea what's going on and we all need to be alert."

"Hey," Oliver touched Felicity's shoulder and she looked up at him, "Lyla is going to call me as soon as your exam is over to let us know how you are. You'll be fine and I'll see you in a little while, okay?"

"Okay." She replied as she leaned in to hug him. He put his arms around her bending his head and shoulders forward and for just that moment, they were the only two in the room. Lyla looked over at them and then back over to Johnny who shrugged. "You get used to it after a while." Johnny whispered to her.

Oliver let Felicity go and she and Lyla walked towards the door. As Lyla opened it, Laurel's hand was in the air about to knock.

"Oh, hi Laurel," Lyla said, "they're all inside, I'm headed to take Felicity to the doctor. They'll fill you in on the little information that we have."

"Okay, thanks." she replied as her and Captain Lance walked into the apartment.

"How you doing Felicity?" Captain Lance asked as he walked towards her.

"I'm okay, the others are in the kitchen. They'll be able to tell you what we know so far and when I get back, I'll look over the email that you sent."

Captain Lance smiled as did everybody else because she had no idea that Lyla had already told them that. Felicity and Lyla went out, shutting the door behind them. 

As Laurel approached where everybody was gathered around the island, she said, "Well, here's what we know. Not a single one of my CIs or my prison pals have heard anything of that magnitude going on."

"And none of my people have gotten wind of anything either. Whatever is going on here, is not originating here, it seems like it's just passing through and last night your bad guys were in the wrong place, wrong time type of situation." Captain Lance chimed in.

"Okay, we know that there was an explosion, do we at least know what caused the boom?" Thea asked.

"Everything that we know so far about how it's made and what it's made of, was sent to Felicity's email this morning. It's not much but I was hoping that between her and her pals at S.T.A.R. Labs, somebody could come up with something." Lance added hopefully.

"Hang on," Oliver said as he bounded up the stairs and came back with Felicity's tablet, "here it is, Diggle can you get a hold of Caitlin and ask her to check her email? I'm going to forward what Lance sent so she can get a start on it."

"Um, Oliver," Roy said cautiously, "does Felicity know that you have one of her babies?"

"What?" he looked up at everyone who was staring at him like he'd grown a second head for messing with her tech, "she set it up this morning so I could get into it. All right, it's been sent and if they need samples we can contact Barry and he can come get them. Would that be feasible Captain?"

"Why would we send for the kid? We can just send one of our officers to Central City and it would save some time."

Roy spoke up laughing and looked over at Oliver, "Please let me be here when he comes, this is going to be epic!"

Thea and Captain Lance both had confused looks on their faces but Oliver spoke up saying, "It's too long to explain but you'll see soon enough."

Digg put down his coffee and said, "Thea, Roy, go get some sleep. We need you both functioning, Laurel, keep working your CI's. Captain Lance, keep sending us everything you discover and we'll make sure that Caitlin gets it. Oliver and I will work up some plans to see if we can find these carjackers. Before the explosion, they saw something and we need to know what that was."

Everybody dispersed, doing what needed to be done. Thea and Roy upstairs to sleep, Captain Lance back to the station and Laurel back to the DA's office. Once they were gone, Diggle looked over at Oliver, "get the laptop and let's see if we can trace anything around that warehouse for the past couple of days. If no one knows anything, then this city is just a stopping point for them."

Oliver and Diggle sit in front of the laptop for over and hour when John's phone rang, it was Lyla. "Hey, how'd everything going with the appointment?" He asked putting her on speaker for Oliver to hear.

"Good, Beth couldn't find anything damaged and told her that her hearing could come back at any time. We'll stop off at her apartment and get her some more clothes and stop to pick up lunch. You guys have a preference?"

"No," they both replied and then Oliver responded with, "Whatever you want to pick up is fine."

"All right then, we will see you in a little while." Lyla said then hung up.

Digg looked over at Oliver and he had a smile on face and looked completely out in space. Usually that didn't happen unless Felicity was actually in the room. Seriously, these two were going to be the death of him, he shook his head and went back to searching the footage.

Lyla was being nice enough to clear out anything that could spoil in her fridge while Felicity stood in her bedroom packing something more substantial than her go bag. She had her toiletries, clothes, shoes, pajamas and now she was standing looking down into her underwear drawer. What did she want to bring? This shouldn't be that difficult, it was just underwear but let's be honest, she was sleeping with Oliver Queen. Not sleeping as in sex sleeping, although Lord knows she wanted to do that, but if she brought just her sexy underwear and he rejected her, what would be the point. There's nothing wrong with her cotton underwear, it's comfortable but it's not something she wanted to wear in front of him. He looked like he was a lingerie type of guy and she wanted to get them out of this rut. Touching but nothing more, longing glances at one another, she felt like he might be changing his mind about them and she really wanted him to change his mind. She loved him and she knew that he loved her but she didn't want something as silly as underwear to set them back. She was frustrated enough with him as it was. All of a sudden a hand covered hers. She gave a little squeak until she realized it was Lyla.

"Felicity, he is hopelessly in love with you. He won't care what underwear you have on or if you're wearing lingerie. If I were you, wear what you feel the most comfortable in. If you're happy, he's happy and if it all comes off at some point then you're both happy!"

Felicity blushed and said, "I guess my filter wasn't working again?"

Lyla nodded her head and told her, "From what I see, he really doesn't care about all that Felicity. I saw the two of you this morning in the kitchen, and to be completely honest, I thought Johnny was exaggerating the two of you but he wasn't. He was never more than two steps away from you, touching you whenever he got the chance. Even though you can't hear it, he was using what Johnny refers to as the Felicity voice, all soft and sexy. You would move closer to him and lean into his touch. And don't get me started on that hug! You leaned in to hug him, wrapping your arms around his waist and he bent his body around you, cocooning you in. I know what Oliver said to you about being happy and him not being able to live this life and also have you in it but you already live this life. You need to convince him of that and seeing as you're sharing a bed for the foreseeable future, you might want to play a little dirty to get him to change his mind."

"Do you really think so? I don't want to trick him into doing something he'll regret." Felicity said sadly.

"Felicity, if you're doing it out of love then how can that be wrong? It would be obvious to anyone who sees you together that you love each other, so use every weapon you have so to speak and get the man you love to pay attention!"

She hugged Lyla and then pulled out some sexy red underwear and tossed them in her suitcase. She really didn't know if she'd have the nerve to wear them but a girl could hope. 

They made sure to lock everything up tight and head back to the loft. Hopefully someone came up with some type of lead they could work with. They walk in thirty minutes later with some Chinese and Felicity's bag. Oliver comes over to her, grabs her shoulders and looks at her. Lyla just stands back watching, these two are having an entire conversation with their eyes. She walks into the kitchen where Johnny is waiting for her.

She gives him a kiss asking, "Do they do that a lot?" tilting her chin over towards Oliver and Felicity.

He shrugs the shrug of a man who has watched this play out for over two years. "All the time, you get used to it and I know it's not intentional but it sometimes makes you feel like you're interrupting something. I love them both but they're both stubborn."

They both look up when Oliver reaches down and takes Felicity's suitcase. "I'll be right back, Digg go ahead and tell them the plan that we came up with to find the carjackers and I'll take Felicity's suitcase up." He turns on his heel and walks upstairs while Felicity walks over to the counter and helps set out the food.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this one is so short, two jobs and now just 5 hours of sleep but I wanted to get things set up for the next chapter. Thanks to those who are sticking with me. I know it might seem long and tedious going into this much detail about the small things but for me, it's always been about the small things!


	5. Chapter 5

They've finished eating and now the four of them were sitting around talking through plans when Thea comes down the stairs.

"Speedy, we saved some Chinese if you're hungry. Just check the fridge." Oliver tells her from the couch.

"Thanks," She replies as she heads to the fridge, "what are you talking about?"

"Well we think we've come up with a plan to catch the carjackers in the act so we can get information from them but we'll have to involve Ray and some think," Felicity says looking at Oliver, "that it's not such a good idea."

"I know that he was helpful last time but--" Oliver stops when he hears a knock on the door.

"But what Oliver? You can't possibly be jealous of the man and NOW he's just going to run off from the conversa--" Diggle stops her with a hand on her arm and points to the door. 

As Oliver lets in Laurel and Quentin, Felicity just mouths, "Oh! sorry Oliver."

"Okay, we've got good news and bad news, which do you want to hear first?" Quentin says as he moves towards the living room, "Felicity, how'd your appointment go?"

"Good, nothing's damaged and she said my hearing could come back at any time. Now let's go with the bad news so that the good news sounds better." Felicity told him as she moved over for him to sit next to her.

"With the help that Caitlin and Cisco did for us we now know that it's C4." 

"We had to deal with that in the Army," Lyla said as she turned and looked at Digg, "didn't you have advanced training at some point?"

"Yeah," Digg replied, "this isn't good."

"It actually gets worse." Lance told him.

"I thought you said you had good news and bad news, not bad news and worse news." Felicity said.

"Wasn't quite through with the bad news yet," He said to her, "one of my guys has a sister that works at the Army base just north of here and she let him know that C4 had been stolen over a month ago. They haven't found it or the people who took it."

"Why didn't we hear about that on the news?" Roy asked as he came down the stairs, "wouldn't that have been something they needed to report?"

Lyla spoke up saying, "Depending on how much was stolen, where it was stolen from and who might have been involved, the DOD might have told them to keep it in house. I'm going to call Waller and see if she can get any information from people she knows." 

They watched as Lyla left the living room, Oliver looked over at Lance and asked, "What's the good news?"

"Good news is that C4 is harmless as far as its transport and storage so it can't detonate by accident. I think since that part of the Glades was the most destroyed, they decided to use that warehouse as a test run. I don't think they meant to harm anyone since there weren't any operational businesses anywhere nearby or homes. Like I said this morning, you and the carjackers were just in the wrong place at the wrong time." 

"None of my informants have heard anything on the street or in the jails." Laurel said, "Dad and I just think they took the opportunity of a neglected area to see if what they have in mind would work later. If something was going down in this city, somebody somewhere would know, between all of us we have literally every angle covered and we're coming up with nothing."

Felicity gets up and starts to pace around, "Okay, if Starling is just a pass through and the Army base was north of here maybe we can find something that connects the two. Lyla," Lyla stops talking and looks over at Felicity, "can you ask if they can send over anything digital that the base has on the theft?" She nods and continues talking on the phone. Felicity heads to the coffee table, sits down and opens her laptop, typing furiously.

"Hey Blondie," Roy says between a mouthful of Chinese, "you want to let us in on what you're doing?"

"Roy," Thea says elbowing him in the gut, "she can't hear you remember?"

Oliver squats down next to her and cups her elbow. She stops typing and looks over at him, "You want to explain?" He asks as he nods at the keyboard. She looks around to see all of them staring at her and she says, "I've borrowed facial recognition software and tweaked it so it can also look for vehicles. Even if they've switched up vehicles, the program can track it to it's last known location. Maybe there they made a mistake and we can see their faces or a license plate."

Oliver lets go of her elbow and she starts back to work, Quentin says as he looks at her in wonder, "I know I've said it before but I will say it again, thank God she's on our side."

"You and me both." Diggle replies as Oliver smiles and Roy nods his head.

Everybody is busy doing something, whether it's phone calls, planning strategy or resting up. It's going on 8:30 when Felicity fists pumps the air, "Man, criminals are stupid!"

She looks up to see everybody looking at her, "Oh, wow it got dark, what time is it? Is anybody else hungry? Did you eat without me? You know you could have stopped me for food, right? Whoa, my butt hurts, this is not my nice comfy Arrow cave chair or even my office chair--"

Oliver stops her with a hand wave in front of her face and she looks up, "What did you find?" He asks.

"Well, they were smart enough to change trucks but they didn't change out the trailers. I'm running a program that's tracking it now but I don't know how long it will take, it'll alert me when it's done. Is there any food?"

Thea pulls out some take out menus and says, "Pick your poison and we'll have it delivered." Everybody gathered around the island and forty-five minutes later, everybody has food.

"Okay, I'm I the only one who's curious?" Quentin asks out loud as he eats his burger.

"About what?" Laurel asks.

"You guys have been working together so long that when something out of the ordinary happens, you don't question it, you just go with the flow." He says with a chuckle.

Roy looks over at him and says, "We kind of have a different definition of normal than most people do."

"That has to be the understatement of the year." Lyla says with a snort.

"Felicity?" Quentin asks.

Oliver touches Felicity's arm and points over to Captain Lance, "Sorry, did you say something to me?"

"My curiosity has gotten the better of me and I have to ask, how can you read lips so well?"

"Oh, Mom sometimes had late shifts and she didn't want to leave me at home and we couldn't really afford an after hours babysitter so I would go into work with her. I usually took a book to read or did my homework but one day I started people watching. It was interesting so I started trying to hear their conversations but I wasn't allowed to leave the booth I was in to get close enough so I taught myself to read lips." She replied with a shrug.

"Felicity, you are a truly remarkable person, you know that?" Quentin said with just a touch of awe in his voice.

"You know," she said looking over at Oliver who had a ghost of a smile on his face, "I've actually heard that before."

Around midnight everyone headed for their own homes promising that if they heard anything, they'd get in contact with everyone else. As Thea and Roy headed towards the stairs, she looked back and saw Felicity. She walks over and takes her arm, "He's going to be a few minutes," she says looking over at Oliver, "he triple checks everything to make sure it's secure. Come on upstairs and get ready for bed, he'll be up when he's done."

Oliver sees the two most important people in his life walking arm and arm up the stairs. He finishes checking the locks, turns off all the lights and heads upstairs smiling knowing he has another night with Felicity in his bed.

He walks into the bedroom and there is no sign of her. He looks over at the bathroom door but the light is off and her suitcase is sitting on the bed unopened. He hears someone behind him and turns around, it's Roy.

"Can you please come and get your girl away from your sister? I really don't want to hear Blondie talking about underwear, man."

He follows Roy back to Thea's bedroom and hears voices coming from the closet. He walks over and stands in the door looking as Thea hands Felicity a lacy black thong saying, "Fantastic right? This store is fabulous! We will have to go shopping together sometime but I don't want to know what you buy. I really don't need to know anything about my brother's sex life."

He sees Felicity turn about three shades of red as she stutters out, "I'm not-we're not-I just didn't have underwear last night-not for that reason-I was in an explosion remember!" She drops the thong and turns seeing Oliver in the doorway.

He just smiles at her as she walks by headed towards his bedroom. "Big brother," Thea says as her hand falls on his shoulder, "you need to get your head out of your ass and do something about that."

"So I've been told." He tells her as he follows Felicity out of the room.

When he gets to his bedroom, she has her suitcase open and is getting out her toiletries. She gestures towards the bathroom, "You want to go first?"

"No, go ahead."

She crosses over the room and shuts the door. It flies right back open and she looks at him saying, "Can you get my tablet? If the alert comes from my program, we won't be able to hear it up here."

"Sure, I'll be back in minute." Oliver leaves the room to get the tablet. He returns just as she's leaving the bathroom. He notices that she has his Henley back on from the night before and still no pajama bottoms. He raises an eyebrow and she just says, "It's soft," and continues over to the side of the bed she was on the last night. He sets the tablet on the desk and goes into the bathroom, changing into some running pants. He comes back out, turning the light off and grabbing her tablet. He slides into bed and hands it to her. She punches up a few things, telling him that nothing's popped up yet and hands it back to him. He puts it on his bedside table and turns off the light.

They lay there for a few minutes and he hears her sigh. She moves around a little trying to get more comfortable he's guessing. They lay there for a little while longer and he can feel the tension coming from her. Finally, she lets out a little huff and reaches over, turning on the bedside lamp. She turns and looks at him, and he's laying there with his hands behind his head, sheet around his waist, eyebrows raised, looking back at her.

"Did you need something?" He asked.

"Yes."

"Whatever it is, it's yours."

"I need you to kiss me."

"What?" He croaked out. Of all the things he was expecting her to say, that wasn't even on the list.

"I know what you've said to me and what I've said to you and I hope it's not just me noticing this but things between us have changed. I don't know how and I'm not questioning it, all I know is that being with you is easier and I want you. I want an us."

"Fe-li-ci-ty" He says as he sits up, "I don't want--"

She starts to tear up and gets out of the bed. She's halfway to the door when he finally reaches her.

He puts his hand under her chin so she'll look at him. Tears are leaving trails down her face and she says, "Just tell me where the guest bedroom is Oliver and I'll go sleep there. I misinterpreted things and I'll be okay--"

"You are not sleeping anywhere but with me and if you'd let me finish what I was going to say." She inhaled sharply and nodded her head. 

"What I was about to say is that I don't want to kiss you in the bed because it wouldn't stop at just kissing. I noticed too and I do want to talk about it but I want you to hear what I'm saying to you not just reading my lips, okay?" He tells her as he wipes away her tears with the pads of his fingers.

She smiles up at him, "That's fair enough."

His hands fall from her cheeks and he grabs hers and pulls her back towards the bed. She doesn't budge. "Felicity, you don't have to sleep in another room--"

"Oh, I know but we're not in bed."

His brow is scrunched up and he has a confused look on his face, "I know."

"You said that you don't want to kiss me in bed because it wouldn't stop at just kissing but we're not in bed right now."

He looks down at her and wonders what he's done in his life to deserve this woman. He puts his hands on her cheeks and just before his lips touch hers, whispers I love you. She smiles at that and wraps her arms around his neck. It's soft and chaste at first, but she moans and he deepens the kiss. She licks his bottom lip and he growls, moving his hands from her face down to her waist. She takes the opportunity when he opens his mouth to slip her tongue in and he pulls her harder against him. Her hands slide from his neck down to his chest, she feels the scars and the pounding of his heart. He bunches his shirt that she's still wearing in his fists. God, her lips are so soft and she tastes so good. 

When they finally come up for air minutes later, foreheads against each other and breathing raggedly, "Wow, just wow," she whispers, "I don't know how I'm going to get back into bed with you after that."

She feels him chuckle and he looks down at her, "Contrary to popular belief, I'm a gentleman Felicity. I want us to talk before anything happens."

She walks away from him towards the bed muttering, "You may be a gentleman Oliver Queen but nobody ever said I was a lady."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please forgive any errors about C4. I thought about looking it up but since things like that might be monitored, I decided to go with what I remembered from television shows and movies. Go with it because I would prefer to write from home and not prison! :)


	6. Chapter 6

Felicity woke to an empty bed. She smiled as she turned to look out the window because she didn't dream last night. He kissed her and he was willing to talk about what was between them. He wasn't pushing her away anymore and he seemed to be okay with what was happening. She saw movement out of the corner of her eye and it was Oliver coming in the room. He looked like he'd been up for a while and when he saw she was awake, came around the bed and sat down next to her.

"Hi," He said, reaching over to push some hair back from her face.

"Good morning," She replied as she blushed a little at the gesture, sitting up, "um, what are you doing up? I mean if you want to be up then that's fine, you didn't have to stay in bed because I was in bed. You're a grown man and can do whatever you want so if you wanted to be up or are you one of those that gets up at the crack of dawn? I myself am not fully functional until at least two cups of coffee but that doesn't help with the babbling so 3...2...1..."

He huffed at that and said, "Felicity, I wanted you to get as much rest as your body needed. Roy is actually downstairs cooking and Thea made a pot of coffee. Lyla called and said that she had some information and they'd be here as soon as the nanny showed for Sara. I called Laurel and let her know to come, so get dressed and meet us downstairs when you're ready."

"Okay, I'll take a quick shower and be right down." She moved to get out of the bed but Oliver hadn't budged. "Oliver, if you want me to get ready, you'll have to move."

"I forgot something." He said with a look of seriousness on his face.

"Oh, did my alert sound? Did we find the truck? Did facial recognition get anything?" She said glancing to his bedside table looking for her tablet.

"No," He replied when she looked back at him, "I forgot this." 

His hand came up to cup her cheek and his lips brushed up against hers. It was light as a feather but she felt the electricity all the way to her toes. She opened her eyes to see him with a smile on his face.

"Now it's a good morning."

"Um, I thought you said that you weren't going to kiss me in bed?"

He jumped up and with a wink replied, "I'm not in bed." He crossed over to the door and looked back, "We'll wait for you, okay?"

She waited for the door to shut and jumped up and ran into the bathroom. It was probably the quickest shower she'd ever taken but she smelled coffee and she didn't want everyone to wait on her. She got dressed and decided the best thing to do would be to let her hair air dry. It would take her longer to dry it than it took to take a shower. She headed downstairs and was assaulted by the smell of bacon and coffee.

"Hey Felicity!" Thea said waving at her, "come and get some before all the men eat it all."

Felicity walked over and was headed to the coffee pot when Oliver motioned for her to sit down. She sat at the island and he put a cup of coffee in front of her. He looked like he was about to ask her something when she blurted out, "Thea!, This coffee is heavenly!"

"I bet you say that to everybody who has coffee!" she replied.

After taking another sip, she realized that Oliver was still hovering. She looked up at him and he asked, "Do you want some eggs and bacon? Toast?"

"Bacon and toast would be good with some of that grape jelly, if you still have some." Oliver walked over to where Roy was manning the stove and grabbed her some food. He went to the fridge pulled out the jelly, walking back to where Felicity sat. She was in a conversation with Digg so he got a butter knife and put the jelly on her toast. When he finished, he put the bottle back in the fridge and got a couple of napkins from the counter and sat back down beside Felicity. He didn't want to interrupt her conversation, so he just touched her elbow to let her know it was there. She looked at him, looked down and looked back at him with a beautiful smile coming over her face. Thanking him, she grabbed a piece of bacon and went back to talking to Digg. 

This entire exchange was witnessed by Lyla and Thea. "Do you think they even realize that we're in the room?" Lyla asked.

"All I know is that she makes my brother smile and with the life that we lead, if she can get him to do that, they can ignore me all they want to."

There was a knock on the door, Thea went to answer it. Laurel and Captain Lance came in and they didn't look happy at all.

"Hey," Quentin said to the group in general, "do you have any idea how we're going to catch the carjackers? I'm not real happy having things that go boom in my city. We need to find out what they know."

"I have a plan but--" Felicity said.

"I would rather not involve Palmer if we can help it." Oliver said cutting her off.

"Technically, we're not involving him, just his cars. He has them stored in a secure garage and if we asked, I'm sure that he wouldn't mind if we used them as bait. You guys would be there, in position, to get whoever comes in for them. Roy could get word out to a couple of not very fine upstanding citizens of Starling and then you could stake the place out. It's his city too so he wouldn't mind, really."

"Felicity--"

"Oliver, listen to me," She said softly as she placed a hand on his forearm, "We broke up because he knew there was something between us. I chose you and this life but sometimes you have to let people help you. You can't do it by yourself and let's face it, if we're going to do the whole I-don't-want-someone's-help-because-I-slept-with-them-jealousy routine, I might have an issue with Sara and Laurel but I don't, so I think this is our best shot at catching them."

"He noticed something between us? That's why you broke up?"

"Really, that's what you took from what I said?"

He shook his head and said, "Okay, before we get to ahead of ourselves, let's give Ray a call and see if he'd be willing."

"He's in New York right now at a tech conference." Felicity supplied, "where's my phone and I'll call him."

"Hey, Blondie," Roy said, waving his arms in front of her. She looked up, "how are you going to talk to him, you can't hear remember?"

"Frack, I keep forgetting that but I still need my phone. Someone else can talk to him but he'll answer if he sees my number." Digg handed her the phone from off the coffee table and she punched in her code. "Okay, who wants to talk to him?"

"Dial and hand it to me, I'll ask." Oliver said.

Twenty minutes later, they had the code to the garage and everyone was getting ready to go do a little recon. Laurel agreed to stay behind with Felicity and when she balked at being babysat, Laurel said, "This would be the perfect opportunity to show me more about what you do. It's always good to have a helping hand with computers, right? And if you were tied up in a meeting, I'd be able to help with a mission until you got there. So I see it as a win-win."

"That actually could be helpful for the future. Let me run upstairs and get my tablet and we can get started." She headed towards the stairs and everyone was shuffling out the door. She stopped saying, "I know that it's just recon but please be careful." Digg pulled her into a little side hug and as he made his way out the door with Lyla,she squeezed her hand. Captain Lance just gave a brief nod and headed into the hallway behind Roy and Thea who gave her two thumbs up. Oliver reached over and grabbed her hand and planted a soft kiss on her lips. "We'll be fine, Laurel will have her comm in so if you want to know what's going on, just ask her."

They left and she locked the door behind them and went to get her tablet. Once back downstairs, she was pleasantly surprised at how much Laurel knew. 

"Since there's so much crime happening now with anything cyber, I take any and all training seminars that the department has dealing with computers." Laurel said when Felicity mentioned it.

They sat there going back and forth, Felicity teaching Laurel how to run the different programs she used and Laurel telling her what was going on through the comm. They were running an algorithm to check for different drug hot spots when her alert beeped. It flashed on the screen that the trailer had been seen. She ran the program and it showed the truck and trailer headed into the Glades and into an abandoned warehouse about 5 miles from where the explosion went off. She turned, looking at Laurel, "Tell them so they can check it out."

A few moments later, "They are headed back but without Roy and Thea. They are going to keep an eye on the building until night can fall and everyone else is headed back here to formulate a plan."

An hour later, everyone but Thea and Roy were back at the loft. The recon had went okay and they knew where and how to work that angle. Felicity pulled up the cameras so that they'd have a birds-eye view of the inside in case the carjackers showed up. Thea and Roy checked in every hour but the only movement was a SUV leaving the building.

Captain Lance told them to just stay in position and not move on the warehouse until after dark since no one knew how many men were actually in the warehouse. 

"All right, I'm going to head out and relieve them. Laurel come with me, we'll stop to eat first and then we'll take the kids something. You guys might want to eat too, it's looks like that it's going to be a long night." Quentin and Laurel left and Digg mentioned Big Belly so they ordered. Lyla offered to go pick it up and check on Sara while she was out. Felicity was still on her laptop, typing away.

Lyla left and Digg and Oliver sat down on either side of Felicity. They watched as her hands flew across the keyboard and suddenly she let out a shriek.

"What?!" Digg asked looking over her head at Oliver.

"Hey, I found out where the SUV went. It's at the Old Starling Hotel in downtown. Fancy smancy if you're a bomber don't you think?"

"Why would they be down there? That's not exactly the cheapest hotel and not somewhere that you'd lay low. Do we have any of their faces on video? Maybe we can find out who they are and maybe then we'll have a lead on something." Digg said with a questioning voice.

"Seriously, what would I have to do to impress you people?" Felicity replied, shaking her head, "I've already started the facial recognition so now we'll just have to wait for the alert. Where'd everybody go?" She asked looking around.

"Lance and Laurel are relieving Thea and Roy and Lyla went to pick up Big Belly and check on Sara. Uh, Felicity, your tablet dinged." Oliver said pointing at it.

"Facial recognition is done," She said scrolling through the faces, "I'll get these to Captain Lance so he knows who to look for, Oh My God!" Felicity practically screamed.

"What?! What is it?" Oliver asked as both men looked at the screen. 

"I need to call Caitlin right now!" She whispered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't hate me because I left it on a cliffhanger. I'll post the next chapter tomorrow but since I'm only going to get 5 hours of sleep if I log off now, it's something I must do!


	7. Chapter 7

"Digg, get Caitlin on the phone now!" Felicity shouted.

"Felicity, who is it? Do you know that guy?" Oliver asked pointing to where she froze the screen.

"Yes, a few months ago when Palmer and I were still together, we went to S.T.A.R. Labs to see if Cisco could help with his suit. They had an issue going on with bees--seriously, don't ask--but Cisco and Ray spent all their extra time with his suit. Caitlin and I went to Jitters for our caffeine addiction since we had nothing else to do and we didn't want to stand around watching boys play with their toys. Nothing out of the ordinary happened, just a normal day but while we were sitting there talking, this man comes up and just starts cursing and yelling at Caitlin. He knew that she worked at S.T.A.R. Labs and he was blaming her for the death of his wife. One of the workers and the manager came over and got him out the door but I'm positive that this is the guy."

"Okay, Digg, call Caitlin, Felicity, send her a copy so she can verify that it was the man. Let's see what we're working with here." Oliver told them as he stood to pace.

Thirty minutes later, Oliver is on the phone with Lance and Digg is talking to Waller and Barry comes through the door. Caitlin verified that it was the same man and Felicity checked the backgrounds of the other four men and told them that they had all lost loved ones during the explosion at S.T.A.R Labs. Two of the men had work history in construction so they knew how to handle the C4. All of this was relayed to Lance and Waller and Barry gets on the phone and contacts Joe and Eddie. Laurel checks in and lets everyone know that the SUV is back and four men were inside.

"Barry, can you do a quick surveillance and let us know exactly what we're dealing with?" Oliver asked.

"Sure, be right back." 

"Laurel," Oliver says through his comm, "don't be surprised if you see a bright red flash. Barry's here and he's going to take a quick look--"

"Okay," Barry says as he sits down next to Felicity, "it's just the five men, they all have weapons but nothing automatic or semi-automatic. The C4 is safely stored in the containers that they were stored in at the Army depot and still in the same trailer. They do have another semi truck in the warehouse so I'm assuming that they're switching out the trucks."

Oliver, Digg and Felicity relay all of this information to Lance, Waller and through an open link to the lab, Cisco, Caitlin, Dr. Wells, Joe and Eddie.

"What do you need us to do on our end?" Eddie asks.

"Right now just go about business as usual. They may have people there who are watching and we don't want to tip their hand. We need to know if this is the end of it or if they have more stored in Central City waiting for them." Digg responded.

"What do you mean, more stored? Do we think they have more than what's in the warehouse in Starling City?" Joe asked.

"Lyla got some intel this morning about possible other thefts but they weren't from military depots. Some job sites had been broken into and A.R.G.U.S pieced two and two together once Felicity got a hit on their faces. They might have already moved those into your city because those thefts were over four months ago." Oliver told him.

"Barry, keep us informed and let Lance know that whatever help he needs on this end, we have him covered." Joe said as Oliver passed along the message to Lance.

"Barry," Dr. Wells said before Felicity turned off the link, "they need your help more there than we do here. If you or they need anything from us, don't hesitate to call."

"Thank you Dr. Wells," Felicity replied and killed the link, "now what do we do?" She asked the room in general.

"Lance," Oliver said, "we need to stop this carjacking ring, can you put some of your men on it?" 

Oliver listened for a minute and hung up the phone. "The police are going to deal with the carjackers and since that's on the other side of town, we won't have to worry about any police interference."

Digg spoke up saying, "Waller said that since they have more tech manpower, they'll trace the thefts from the construction sites and see if anything made it to Central City."

"Okay, everybody suit up and let's meet Lance outside the warehouse. Felicity, can you text him and let him know what we're doing?" Oliver asked as everyone else started moving around to leave. "Felicity, we need all hands on deck, I don't want to leave you alone--" He said as he sat down beside her.

"Oliver, it's fine," She said as she cupped his cheek in her hand, "There are a few cameras in the area and I can watch it from here. I'll have a comm in, so in case something happens here I can at least call for help and Barry can get here in a flash." She grinned at him across the room.

"Really Felicity?" Barry rolled his eyes at her, "how long you been waiting to say that?"

Oliver leans in and kisses her and Diggle has to clear his throat before Oliver pulls away. "Later, okay?" He says as he gets up off the couch.

"Please be careful." She pleaded as she put her comm in.

Oliver was the last one out and he made sure the door was securely locked. Felicity sent the text to Captain Lance and set her tablet to watch the cameras outside the loft and the laptop was set to watch the warehouse. Twenty minutes later she saw movement around the warehouse. The men were still inside, apparently thinking that no one was wise as to what they were doing. There were no patrols around the perimeter so it was relatively easy for everyone to get into position. She saw a couple of flashes and knew they had breached. She kept a focus on the laptop screen to make sure that she saw everyone come out, so she never even noticed the shadow that crossed the camera in front of the loft door.

 

Oliver would pay for turning his daughter against him. It doesn't matter if he risked his life to rescue him from Nanda Parbat. The one good thing in his life was taken from him. He could never hurt his daughter but he could take from Oliver the only other thing that mattered to him, Felicity. He opened the door and he saw her on the couch and could hear sounds coming from her computer. He shut the door quietly and made his way over to her. She had just set the laptop down and stood up to stretch, he reached over the couch, putting one hand over her nose and mouth and pinched the nerve in her neck that rendered her unconscious. He eased her down to the couch and walked around it. He picked her up and walked away from the loft but not before looking up at the camera by the front entry, smiling and saying, "You took my heart from me, so I thought I'd return the favor."

 

"I know that she's watching but I'll send a text to Felicity and let her know we got everyone and she can contact Central City." Quentin said to Oliver as Roy, Thea and Laurel zip tied the men up.

"Thanks Captain," Oliver reached his hand out and shook the older man's hand, "can you also let her know that I'm on my way back too?"

"Yeah," Lance said smiling, "Queen, I know that you're more than capable of beating my ass and she's not my blood but if you hurt her, I won't be responsible for my actions."

"Captain," He replied with a solemn face, "if I ever hurt her, I'll stand there and take whatever beating you want to inflict."

"Good to know," Looking Oliver up and down and realizing that he meant every word, "now everyone with masks can you be so kind as to leave so I can call the law?"

"Ollie, I'll ride home but just to pick up some clothes. I want to stay with Roy tonight." 

"That's fine Speedy, get in the van because I'm sure that Lyla and Digg want to get home to Sara."

"You have no idea man," Diggle said walking up with his arm around Lyla, "everybody hop in and let's go get some sleep."

"Barry," Oliver turned to the younger man and put a hand on his shoulder, "thanks for your help."

"As soon as Waller lets me know about the outcome of those other thefts, I'll get in contact." Lyla told him as she got into the van.

"Thanks, Lyla and Oliver it really was no trouble. You helped out my city more tonight than I helped you. I'm going to run by the loft and tell Felicity goodbye before heading home."

All that was left was a red streak to which Diggle said, "Seriously, am I the only one who freaks out about that?"

Everyone was smiling at Digg when Laurel walked up saying, "I'll see you guys later and by later I mean no earlier than noon tomorrow." Everyone nodded and chuckled and then the wind blew back her hair.

"Barry, I thought--" Laurel said.

"She's gone. The door was wide open, her laptop on the couch, nothing looks disturbed at all. I checked the entire loft but she's not there." Barry said in a rush to the group. Oliver's heart stopped at those words and all he could hear was the blood pounding in his ears. He noticed Laurel running towards her dad, everybody jumped into the van and he heard Digg tell Barry to get back to the loft. Thea, Roy and Lyla are watching Oliver. One hand is clasped around the door handle and the other on his bow and both are white knuckled. Digg is driving quickly but carefully and his hands are also white knuckled on the steering wheel.

"Man, I know what you're thinking and it's not your fault." Digg said after he looked over at Oliver's face.

"Digg, you have no idea what I'm thinking." He replied in a low growl.

"You had the same look on your face after the restaurant exploded--"

"John, this is different and I know this isn't my fault but the love of my life is missing and right now I need to focus on how to get her back and keep her safe. That is my only concern."

Diggle nodded his head and pressed the accelerator a little further down.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that I keep leaving the endings on cliff hangers but since I don't really have an outline of this, this is where my muse stopped me tonight.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a nod here to NCIS:LA, Deeks and Kensi had a scene and to be honest I blatantly stole it for my purposes. I hope you like it.

She woke up with a start. She panicked when she realized that her hands and feet were tied to the chair. She looked around trying to figure out where she was and all she could see were concrete walls. Nothing distinguishable about it and it was pitch black but suddenly a light shined from behind her. That's when she saw a shadow, it was getting bigger so whoever it was, had to be moving towards her. Suddenly she was slapped and it stung so bad, it brought tears to her eyes. 

Malcolm Merlyn stood in front of Felicity in a robe that covered him entirely, including his face. Even though he wanted Oliver to know who took her, he wanted her afraid for her life until he took her last breath from her. He raised his hand again when she didn't answer his question.

"I can't hear!" She started screaming as he raised his hand again, "I can't hear! I was in an explosion a couple of days ago and I can't hear!"

The robbed person moved from in front of her but she knew that they were still in the room and that they were behind her. From the shadows she could tell it was just one person, for now but without being able to hear, she didn't know if anyone else was in the building. Suddenly the room was dark again and the person was gone.

He dropped the hood and was smiling. She really couldn't hear! This was going to change his plans some but it could be even better now. Maybe he could literally kill two birds with one stone so to speak. He took off his robe and went about getting the materials he needed to exact his revenge on Oliver Queen.

 

Oliver ran throughout the entire loft looking for her. By the time he made it back to the living room, he was in a panic. Laurel had Felicity's tablet and was looking through the footage when she gasped and handed the tablet to Diggle. Diggle's face hardened in an instant and Oliver yelled, "What is it?"

He turned the tablet around and ran the footage. Everyone in the room saw an unconscious Felicity in the arms of Malcolm Merlyn and heard him say, "You took my heart from me, so I thought I'd return the favor." An unholy roar came from Oliver as he marched over to grab the tablet from Digg.

"Laurel, can you run some of Felicity's programs? See if we can find out where he took her." Digg asked.

"Yeah, she showed me so I should be able too." Laurel walked stiffly over and picked up Felicity's laptop. They could all see the police cleaning up around the warehouse, the feed was still on her screen. "Can you give me a time off the tablet? It would make it quicker that way."

Roy went towards Oliver who still had the tablet and was watching it over and over. "No."

"Oliver, she taught me--" Laurel, who snapped out of her shock to look over at him, replied.

"Oliver, we need to get on this--" Digg said right on top of Laurel.

"Barry, can you call Cisco and Caitlin and have them hack into the feeds and see what they can come up with? He took her about a half hour ago." Oliver asked, Barry nodded and walked to the kitchen to call. "Laurel, I know she taught you some tricks but Cisco and Caitlin can hack much faster."

"I'll call Dad then and let him know what's going on." Laurel set the laptop down on top of the coffee table and walked towards the balcony.

Thea walked over to Oliver, "we'll get her back, Ollie. She's our heart and if that bastard hurts her, I don't care what you say this time, I will kill him."

He looked up at Thea and he, Digg, Roy and Barry said at the same time, "Not if I get to him first."

 

The door opened again and Felicity only saw one shadow again before she was plunged back into darkness. Whoever they were put a bag over her head and dragged her and the chair out of the room. She wasn't taken very far and then she felt as if she were alone. She could sense that whoever it was had left her but she'd tried the restraints and knew she wouldn't be able to get out of them. Her best bet right now would be to regulate her breathing because even though she wasn't claustrophobic, she was starting to panic. She copied what she had seen Oliver do on multiple occasions and just breathed. She concentrated on nothing but her breath and she finally calmed down enough so she didn't think that she was suffocating. 

Malcolm set about outfitting the room with a camera and lasers. Once that was finished he ran the wiring for the bombs and shut off the light inside the room. He left one small patch that she could stand in at the center of the room. He had to make a couple of adjustments but he had to admit, this was actually going to be more entertaining than what he'd originally planned. He set up the feed for the camera so he could transmit it to Oliver. Since he had their hacker, they would have a harder time tracking where she was. If Felicity moved and went boom, Oliver would be watching and it would destroy him. And if he managed to track down where she was, he would come in to rescue her and since she couldn't hear, she wouldn't be able to warn him and they would both go boom. Whichever way it went would be a win-win situation for him. He finished up so he could set plan in motion.

 

Digg and Roy were talking with Barry; Laurel and Thea were talking with Captain Lance, who'd arrived about an hour ago, so Lyla went and sat by Oliver. "Hey," she said softly, "I'm not going to sit here and give you platitudes to make you feel better but I need you to concentrate for me," He looked over at her and she continued, "you trained with Malcolm to take on Ra's, did he ever mention any properties or places he had that he could have taken her to?" He shook his head but replied in a voice so low she barely heard him, "Ask Thea. He hated me so he wouldn't have told me anything like that but he considered her his heir so she might remember something."

"Thea," Lyla called, "can you come over here for a minute." Thea nodded and walked over to where Oliver and Lyla sat.

"Thea, I just asked Oliver if there was any place that you could remember Malcolm talking about or possibly took you to. I know that the police checked all of his properties but came up empty."

"No, we left here and went directly to Corto Maltese, you don't think he's down there do you?" She asked.

"I doubt it, I feel like he's got unfinished business here but I don't know what his end game is." Quentin said.

"Felicity dead." Oliver said, straightening up.

"What?!" Roy yelled.

"If he wanted her dead, he could have done it and we would have come back here and found her body." Digg replied.

"Okay, you guys are creeping me out just casually talking about Felicity being dead." Thea said with a shiver.

"I'm going to agree with you there." Barry said to Thea.

"No, listen," Oliver said standing up, "Digg is right, if he wanted to take my heart, he could have killed her and we would've found her body when we returned. He wanted me to know it was him. He thinks I turned Thea against him and he wants revenge and her just being dead isn't enough for him, he wants to torture me. Kidnapping her and leaving me here thinking about all of the things he could be doing, not knowing if she's scared or not, letting my guilt eat at me, he wants not only to take my heart but make me into a shell. When he thinks that's happened, he will get into contact somehow and lead me to where she is. Then he'll think I'm acting on impulse and not thinking about anything but getting to her and incapacitate me to kill her in front of me and then kill me."

Digg had a smirk on his face, "But that's not what's going to happen, is it?"

Oliver looked at his friend with a ghost of a smile, "No, someone once told me there was another way." He and Diggle exchanged a glance, "He can't make me feel guilty because he's the one who turned Thea against him. I know she's scared but she knows I'm coming to get her and she's one of the bravest people I know. Here's the plan..."

 

Felicity was abruptly woken up when the chair started moving again. She was being dragged again and then the hood on her head was jerked off. She blinked at the bright lights and knew she was back in the same room she'd been dragged out of. Her captor was standing in front of her now but they didn't have a robe on. She looked up and gasped when she saw Malcolm Merlyn smiling down coldly at her.

"Can you read my lips?" He asked.

She nodded. 

"Good, good, watch." He walked over and shut the door and then switched off the light. There were lasers everywhere. After a few seconds, he flipped the switch back on and walked back to her.

"This is what is going to happen. I am going to untie you and remove the chair from the room. You will have no choice but to stand exactly where I put you because if you break one of the beams, you go boom. If you try to escape when I untie you, your friends will find you here eventually with a bullet in your brain. Do you understand what I said?"

She nodded and sat as still as she could until he pulled her out of the chair. She hadn't stood or walked around for hours and she stumbled. He steadied her and brought her face to his, "Walk around a bit, get some feeling in your legs, I want you to suffer as long as possible before you die." She did as she was told and soon the pins and needles feeling was gone. He pulled her over to him and put her to stand on an X he had placed on the floor. He grabbed the chair and left the room. He left the light on so that she couldn't see the beams and all she could do was stand and wait until Oliver came for her.

Merlyn watched from his feed as Felicity looked around. He knew that she couldn't see the laser beams and he saw panic on her face as she looked over at the camera. Time to set this plan in motion. He punched a few keys on the keyboard and saw them all standing around in his daughter's loft through the webcam on the laptop. Oliver had his back to the screen but the others that were around him looked angry at him. This was great, time for the show.

 

"Guys, look at the computer!" Barry said over everybody talking.

"What?!" Diggle asked.

"It's Felicity!" Thea yelled.

Oliver ran over to the laptop and picked it up. It was definitely her and thankfully she didn't look hurt but why was she just standing in the middle of a room. He saw her panic stricken face as she looked around the room but she was absolutely not moving. Was there someone out of frame holding a gun to her? Did Malcolm threaten her somehow? What the hell was going on?

"I'm be right back." Barry said with a whoosh.

"Okay, hi everybody." Caitlin said with a small smile as Barry set her down. "Can I see the footage?, let's see if it's in real time or if its recorded and then we can try to trace it."

Everybody moved back from the computer except Oliver. She reached over, grabbed the computer and put it down. He never took his eyes off of it. She grabbed him and hugged him and whispered," Barry told me the plan." He nodded his head once and Caitlin got to work.


	9. Chapter 9

"Oliver, I know that you're concerned but I can't do what I need to do with you hovering over my shoulder." Caitlin said to him as he stood in her personal space. "Can someone please come and get him?"

Digg tipped his chin at Barry and he walked over to Oliver, "Hey, we're going to find her and get her back. Caitlin is not used to people in her space as she tries to do her job so come over here and let her do what she needs to do, okay?" 

Oliver looked over at Barry and then down at Caitlin, he knew that he was distracting her some so he just nodded and followed Barry to the kitchen.

"Thank you!" Caitlin yelled over her shoulder and continued working on the laptop.

Once Barry and Oliver were in the kitchen Oliver told Barry, "Go get some food, leave it by the door and then sweep the loft. I know that he has to be watching us and even though he came in and out of here quickly when he took her, he might have come by at any time and bugged the place, if not, he's probably watching us through the laptop."

"Okay, everybody stay in the kitchen and I'll send a text when I've finished sweeping. Once you see it, tell Caitlin that I'm on my way back and she'll adjust the computer so that the laptop is not facing over this way and I'll sweep in here and then go back out and get the food and bring it in." Barry told Digg.

"Wait, why would we need to move the laptop around?" Thea asked.

"Well," Barry said with a grin, "Caitlin tells me all the time that she's happy the windblown look is in. If he sees your hair flying in all directions, he might get suspicious."

"Oh, um, okay then," Thea replied, "wait, what?"

"Thea, you ever heard about the Flash over in Central City?" She nodded and looked between Lyla and Barry eyes getting wide, "No way, really?" Barry nodded his head and when Thea looked at Oliver, he just shrugged.

"I wish I still drank," Quentin said, "what's with all the superheroes?" Laurel walks over to him and lays a hand on his shoulder.

"Caitlin, Barry is going across the street for some Big Belly and I'm calling it in, do you want anything." Lyla asks.

"Yep, burger, fries and a vanilla shake please!" She replied.

"Okay, I'm going to place the order, walk normally there and back in case he's hacked into any street cams. I've already disabled the camera outside the door and the ones in the rest of the building." She informed Barry.

"When did you think to do that?" Quentin asks.

"When Barry showed up with Caitlin, hopefully he wasn't watching at that point. He doesn't know about Barry and that might come in handy later." Lyla told him.

"Smart wife you got there John." Quentin said.

"Yeah." Diggle replied with a grin.

Barry waved to Caitlin and left the loft. Everyone else just stood around the kitchen looking at Oliver.

"Well, what's the plan now?" Laurel asked.

"Once Barry does the sweep, we'll have more to go on. I'm hoping it's just the laptop camera so that's all we'll have to avoid talking around." Oliver told her.

"Sounds good but um, you might want to walk back over and ask Caitlin how it progressing. It might look a little strange for you not to." Roy mumbled towards him.

Oliver pushed himself away from the counter, turned and walked over to where Caitlin was sitting.

"That was actually longer than I thought you'd stay away but Oliver, I still haven't found anything. I promise at the first sign of a lead and I will let you see." She smiled up at him.

"Thanks Caitlin, I do appreciate it."

He walked back over to the kitchen and stood there with everyone else waiting on Barry to get back. Ten minutes later Digg got the text and let Caitlin know that Barry was headed back.

"Good, I'm starving. Oliver do you think I can move over to the table? My back is starting to hurt sitting on this couch." She asked.

"Whatever you need." He replied. She got up and moved around the coffee table as she saw a red flash in the kitchen. As she sat down, the door opened and Barry walked in with the food. He came into the kitchen and let them know that there were no cameras anywhere in the loft. Laurel grabbed for a drink and Barry said with a wink, "Laurel, that's Caitlin's vanilla shake." She looked at the cup and on the side he'd written, laptop camera only. She smiled and handed it to him and he took her food to the table. Caitlin looked at it and smiled, thanking him.

Digg could tell that Oliver was getting restless. It had been three hours since Felicity had been taken and she was still standing in the same spot, not moving. Diggle went over and stood behind Caitlin watching the feed. After a few minutes, he ran his hand down his face and walked over to where Lyla and Quentin were talking.

"Lyla, will you go over and watch for a minute. I need to make sure I saw what I saw and it's not just me hallucinating." 

"Sure," she said as she squeezed his arm, "any area you want to me to pay particular attention to?"

"Her eyes."

Lyla's eyes got big at that but she walked over to Caitlin and sat down. She asked if Caitlin needed anything and then just sat for a few minutes. "I don't know as much about computers as you and Felicity do but if you need to take a break, I'll fill in." She told her as she got up to leave. "No, I'm good, if the situation was reversed, Felicity would be doing this for me." Lyla nodded and walked back over to John and Quentin who now had Oliver with them.

She was smiling as she walked up, "Oliver, seriously, that girl of yours has some hidden talents."

"So, I wasn't just hallucinating, you saw it." Diggle asked excitedly.

"Yep. I got Malcolm Merlyn, laser beams, bomb."

"When I noticed I got olm Merlyn, laser beams and bomb. So we know that's all we have in her message."

"Somebody want to fill the rest of us in on Felicity's hidden talent?" Oliver asked with a growl.

Lyla turned to Oliver saying, "She's blinking Morse code. At first I thought she was trying to hold back tears but it's actually a message for us. She seemed to know that son of a bitch would broadcast this to you and she was hoping that we'd catch it. She sent, Malcolm Merlyn, laser beams and bomb."

By this time, Laurel and Barry had made their way to their little group. Roy and Thea were sitting on the couch within view of the camera so that Malcolm would be distracted enough with seeing his daughter he wouldn't notice that the others were out of camera range.

"So, we already know Malcolm was involved but she didn't know we knew that, so what are laser beams and bomb supposed to mean?" Laurel asked.

"When I looked at the footage earlier, she didn't have a bomb strapped around her and she's on a concrete floor so she's not standing on one." Quentin said.

"Where are the laser beams?" Digg asked.

"And where is the bomb? From the camera angle we can almost see the entire room and it's all concrete." Lyla added.

"She's standing in the middle of the beams," Oliver said, "that's why she hasn't moved. She can't see them so she doesn't know where to move so she has to stand perfectly still. They must be connected to the bomb outside of view." 

The group is in their own little world at what Oliver said when Quentin looks up to see him smiling, "Why do I get the feeling I'm not going to like this?"

"Merlyn wants me to be a broken man coming after the woman he loves so that he can take me down. What he didn't bank on was how smart that particular woman is. Now that we know what we're going into, we can plan accordingly."

 

Felicity was getting tired. Her legs were starting to hurt and she really didn't know how much longer she could stand. She wished when he'd turned off the lights earlier, she had been paying more attention but nothing could be done about that now. Every few minutes she would use the Morse code her veteran neighbor had taught her and hope that Diggle or Lyla would know it. Didn't they still teach that in military training? Did Digg and Lyla remember any of it? She hoped so, she didn't want them coming in blind and she really didn't think she'd survive this explosion.

Malcolm was watching some woman try and hack the feed. She'd been doing it for over three hours now and it didn't look like she was having much success. Oliver looked horrible and it looked like everyone was trying to console him. Let the bastard be miserable, he thought, he took my daughter and turned her against me. He deserves everything he's getting and he gets the added benefit of seeing his daughter. That little Oliver mini-me was going to have to have an "accident," he shouldn't be near her, he wasn't nearly good enough for her. Suddenly, his computer dinged and he saw the unknown woman yelling. He turned up the sound and everyone was gathered by the laptop.

 

"Oliver! Oliver! I found her! I found her!" Caitlin shrieked.

Everyone came rushing to the table and looked at the laptop. "She's in a concrete bunker underneath the building at 4420 West Baker St. What?" She asked when she turned around and saw Oliver's face, "do you know where that is?"

"Yeah, it's Palmer Technologies." 

"Felicity's office building?" Caitlin asked.

"And it also used to be Queen Consolidated." Barry supplied.

"So Oliver, what's in that bunker?" Quentin asked.

"I have no idea. I would assume that it's where we would store something that didn't need to get damaged but I didn't even know it was there."

"So what are we going to do?" asked Roy.

"I'm going to get Felicity." He said in his Arrow voice and proceeded to run out the door.

"You guys need to follow him!" Lance yelled but they were already out the door behind him except for Caitlin. "Caitlin, can you get me Palmer's number please?"

"Sure, why?" She said as she turned back to the keyboard.

"I know that bastard is probably watching the building but I need Palmer to get all of his people out. I don't know where that bunker is but if it blows, it might take the whole building down with it." He said grimly.

"I'm on it."


	10. Chapter 10

Oliver raced down to the garage and got on his bike. It roared to life under him and he spun the wheels taking off. Roy got on his and was right behind his mentor. Digg, Lyla, Thea, and Laurel got in the van and were off towards Palmer Technologies. Barry was already there doing recon so that he could meet up with them at the rendezvous point and let them know what was going on. Once they got to the garage that was a block away, Barry met them and told Oliver, "Two guards on the main floor lobby and one guard on the tech floor. There was no activity near the bunker that she's in and I didn't see Merlyn anywhere. Oliver the bomb is right outside of bunker between it and the wall. The area is about 3 ft wide but you should be able to reach it."

Oliver nodded his head and looked over at Laurel who said, "Dad called on our way over, he got in touch with Palmer and he is calling his guards and ordering them to leave the building." 

"Okay, Barry I need you to keep a lookout because Merlyn is bound to be nearby. He has to have a backup plan in case the bomb doesn't go off. Everybody else, you know what to do, let's go get her back." Oliver got back on his bike and headed down the block. Everyone else approached the building by foot, as she and Roy ran through the alley, Laurel thought she saw a shadow on the fire escape above her. She slowed and looked but nothing was there so she continued to follow Roy.

 

Malcolm could barely contain his glee. From the monitors he could see Felicity getting restless and looking out the window, he could see Oliver pulling up on his bike and his band of idiots coming towards the building on foot. This was going to be better than he could have wished for! Not only would he destroy Oliver by killing Felicity but all of the fools who worked for him would be gone too. The smile vanished when he realized that the black shadow walking with Oliver's bodyguard wasn't the Canary but his own daughter! What was she doing here? He hit the window and walked back over to the computer. He pulled up the lobby feed and it was her. He picked up his sword and walked towards the elevators. He was personally going to put it straight through Oliver Queen for even thinking of endangering Thea.

 

Barry heard the hit and looked across the street. He saw a man moving away from the third floor window so he raced inside and found him getting onto the elevator. He opened his comm, "Hey guys, I found Merlyn, he was on the third floor of the building across the street but now he's headed your way."

"Don't engage him guys. He wants me and Felicity, Barry get back over here so that you can get her to safety. John, I'm almost in position." Oliver says.

"On my way." Barry replies.

"Good, let me know when you're ready." says Digg.

Oliver finds the bomb and maneuvers into the small space. "Okay John, camera is on, what do I need to do?"

"Looks like a standard three way circuit. Can you get a little closer so I can see where the wires go? Good, good don't move for a minute and let me look, let me look, let me look." Digg studied it for a few seconds and said, "Oliver, carefully reach over and cut the blue wire only. That should disable it." 

Oliver reached for the wire snips out of his jacket pocket and cut the blue wire. The red light in the corner stopped blinking and he heard Digg say, "You're good man, go get our girl." Oliver didn't need to be told twice, he shimmied his way out of the space and walked over to the door. He opened it and looked straight into the bluest eyes he ever saw. She screamed at him to stop and turn off the light. He did and that's when he saw the laser beams. He looked at her and walked straight to her, she had started shaking when he started to walk but when nothing happened she looked up at him. He cupped her face and said, "Your code worked, we knew about the bomb and disabled it." He leaned down to kiss her quickly and she collapsed against him. She was so tired. He picked her up and walked out the door and came face to face with Merlyn.

"Well, well, well, isn't this just a nice little reunion. Too bad it won't be a long one."

Oliver saw the sword in his hand and felt Felicity tense up. "Barry." was all Oliver said and she was gone in a flash of red. 

"What the hell?! Where did she go?" Merlyn screamed at him looking around the room.

"I got friends." Was all Oliver would say. 

"No matter," Malcolm said with gleam in his eye, "once I kill you, she'll be next."

 

Barry set her down next to Diggle and Lyla. "Barry, take me back."

Diggle laid a hand on her shoulder and she looked at him, "Felicity, we have a plan and if he's worried about you, then it won't work. Lyla and Laurel are going to take care of you and we'll all be back in a minute." He stood up and nodded to Barry and Roy and went to where Oliver and Malcolm were.

"Where's Thea?" Felicity asked.

"It's all a part of the plan Felicity. We'll explain it to you later." Laurel said as she and Lyla worked on cleaning and bandaging the cuts on Felicity's wrists and ankles.

 

"Ollie, you need any help?" Thea said as she came strolling into the room like it was a normal day at home and not facing a crazed murderer in her family's old building.

"Thea, what are you doing here? He," he spat towards Oliver, "doesn't love you. He's--"

"Save it DAD," she replied sarcastically, "He's the only one who does! You trained me then drugged me to kill someone I considered my friend. That's right," she said when his eyes got big, "Ollie told me what happened. You no longer exist to me, Ollie is the only family I have left and if he needs my help, he's got it."

"And mine." Digg said.

"Me too." added Roy.

"Isn't this just adorable. All your little friends coming to the rescue. Have you forgotten that I know exactly what all of you can do? I've trained with you and watched as you trained with one another. This will not take long and then I will go and find Felicity and send her to hell right along with you." Malcolm told them as he maneuvered himself towards an exit.

Oliver knew what he was doing, that's why Barry was stationed outside this exit. They had the only other exit blocked, he'd played right into their hands. 

"It's time to end this Queen." Merlyn said raising his sword and then a look of shock came over his face and then another sword was sticking out of his sternum.

Malcolm fell to the ground and Nyssa Al-Ghul was standing over him. "That is for taking my Sara from me. Her death has been avenged." She looked up at Oliver, Thea, Roy and Diggle, who were looking at her in shock. "I've been following him for several weeks but I was always one step behind, until today. My guards will come and remove him, the Demon will want his body as proof." She bowed towards them and left the way she came. Barry moved out of her way and looked at Oliver but before he could ask, Barry shared, "She was standing outside the door when I came up, she was shocked to see me but when I told her what was going on, she hung back but told me that she would be the one to kill him. I wasn't exactly going to argue with her, you know, with the sword and all."

"Oliver," He turned and saw Felicity walking slowly towards him and he walked over to meet her. He looked at Laurel and Lyla who just shrugged and said, "Have you ever tried talking her out of doing something? She gives the most logical reasons why she should be able to do it and you just end up agreeing."

He gathered her into a hug, then looked her in the eyes and whispered, "Are you okay? Do you need to go to the hospital?"

"No, I'm good but a nice hot bath in that swimming pool you call a tub would be nice." 

"I think that can be arranged," He picked her up and headed for the door, "Laurel, can you contact your dad and let him know what happened and that we're headed back to the loft. Oh, and take my bike, we're riding with Digg."

"Well, I guess that's our cue to leave." Roy said as they headed towards the door. On their way out they saw the guards come in to remove Malcolm's body.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a little bit shorter and I had a little surprise with Nyssa coming into the mix. I knew that I didn't want Oliver to kill again even if it was for Felicity and I didn't want Thea to kill because of what it would do to Oliver. I always felt a need for Nyssa to exact the revenge on Merlyn on the show for what he did to Sara so since the show didn't do it (yet, I can only hope) I did.


	11. Chapter 11

Oliver walked in carrying Felicity with everyone else behind them except for Barry. He had already made it back to the loft and was waiting on them with Lance and Caitlin. He carried her over to the couch and set her down so Caitlin could hug her. "You scared us there for a minute." She said as she pulled back and looked Felicity.

"Yeah," She said as she sat down, "I'm not having a good week."

Quentin watched as Oliver sat down next to her. He looked at Oliver as he took Felicity's hand in his and she leaned into him. "Oliver," Quentin said clearing his throat, "what exactly am I going to see when I get down there?"

Oliver looked at Captain Lance saying, "Just an unexploded bomb."

He looked around at everyone and his eyes landed on Diggle. "John?"

"That's all we found when we arrived." Digg said and the others nodded.

"So no Merlyn?" He asked in general.

"No, and that's all you need to know Dad," Laurel said, "I'll use one of the burners and call it in so the police can dispose of it. Oliver, I'll call tomorrow and check on you two. Right now, I'm going home, Dad can you give me a ride?"

"Sure, honey," Quentin told his daughter as he bent down in front of Felicity, "take care of yourself tonight and I'll come by and get your statement in the morning."

"Call first Captain, I want her to rest as long as her body needs it." Oliver told him.

"I've got your number." He patted Felicity's knee and left with Laurel.

Digg looked at Oliver, "Man, we're going to head out. I need a hug from my baby girl and we need sleep," He said as he pulled Lyla to his side, "we'll call tomorrow and see if you guys need anything." Oliver nodded and Felicity waved as they left.

"Felicity, we need to get back. Cisco is probably pacing the floor waiting to grill us about what happened." Barry told her. He squeezed her hand, then shook Oliver's extended hand. "Thank you Barry. It wouldn't have worked without your help." Barry ducked his head but looked over at Felicity who was talking to Caitlin, "She's my friend, there isn't anything I wouldn't do for her." Caitlin looked at Oliver asking, "Next time we meet, can it be over Italian and good wine?" Oliver and Felicity both started laughing as Barry and Caitlin looked at each other quizzically, "Um," Oliver said with a smile, "maybe not Italian but that sounds like a plan." Barry and Caitlin smiled and then a red blur and wind.

"That is still awesome." Thea said as she came down the stairs. "Yeah, it takes some getting used to," Roy replied from the edge of the sofa, "you ready?" 

"Yeah," She said as she put a duffle next to the door, "Ollie, we'll call tomorrow but I have no intention of waking up before noon." Roy got up and walked over to Thea, "Blondie, take care and we'll see you tomorrow." They left and Oliver and Felicity were finally alone. He was tempted to stay like this, her hand in his, her head on his shoulder but she wanted a bath.

He moved a little and she glanced up at him, "Did you still want a bath?" He asked, "I can get it ready for you so all you have to do is climb in." She nodded her head and he picked her up and carried her up the stairs. He placed her on the bed and went into the bathroom. He started the water, found the right temperature and started filling it. He moved around the room, getting towels, one so she could dry off and the other one to roll up under her head. He walked back to the bedroom and found her trying to get her other shoe off. He crossed over to her and pulled the other one off as she fell back on the bed. He leaned over her and asked, "Did you want me to add some bath salts? Thea might have some in her bathroom." She shook her head. He left her relaxing on the bed and returned to check on the water, it was almost ready so he turned on the jets and the warmer. Once it filled, he went back out and saw her sitting up, biting on her lip.

He bent down in front of her, "What's wrong?"

"I can't get my pants down, it keeps rubbing the rope burns on my ankles and it hurts."

"Felicity, lean back and I'll get them off of you, you won't even feel it."

"Ugh, this is so embarrassing." She said as she leaned back, slapping her hand on her head. Oliver got her pants off and she only felt a little twinge. Her shirt was long enough that it covered all the important spots and he reached for her hands and pulled her up off the bed. "You ready?"

"Yes, I want to get this day off me." He picked her up and she squeaked, "Oliver, I can walk!"

"This is quicker," He said as he deposited her by the tub, "Here's a towel and that one can be rolled up to put behind your head. The controls for the jets and warmer will be by your right hand, okay?" She nodded looking at them and back up at him, "I'm going to go shower quickly in Thea's room and then go downstairs and find you some food but if you need me, just yell."

"Okay, I'm actually starving, more than just muffins and jelly this time, please." She said with a smile.

He smiled back at her, "Your wish is my command." He turned, grabbed his soap bottle and left, shutting the door behind him. He took a quick shower, then made his way down to the kitchen and smiled when he saw her favorite stir fry in the fridge. He wasn't sure if had been Lance or Caitlin but he made a mental note to find out and thank them. He put it on a plate to heat up and turned on the microwave. He got some water and silverware from the drawer. The timer dinged and he got everything on the tray and headed back upstairs. As he got closer, he could hear her singing. He wasn't sure what it was but the tune sounded familiar. He placed everything on the desk and went to look out the window, a few minutes later he heard her stop singing and the sounds of her getting out of the tub.

"Oliver," She yelled, "frack, oh, I'm okay and decent so you can come in, I need a blow dryer." He smiled at her bumbling and opened the door. She looked at him with a tired smile and wrapped in a towel, "I really want to eat, get new bandages and go to sleep but if I let all of this air dry," She said as she picked up her wet, curly hair, "it will take forever. Do you think Thea has a dryer?" 

"She does, it was on her counter, I'll go and get it."

A couple of minutes later he was back, he walked into the bathroom and she wasn't there. He set the dryer on the counter and left the bathroom as she was coming out of the closet. She almost ran into him, if he hadn't grabbed her arms. "Oh, sorry, you're quick! I just needed a shirt, I don't know what happened to the one I was using." She walked right by him back into the bathroom, "I'll just be a few minutes," She said as she shut the door. He looked around and saw it peeking out from under the suitcase on the bed. He moved it and her suitcase to the chair, turning to stand back in front of the windows and listened as she dried her hair. He saw his reflection in the glass and wondered when listening to something so domestic would make him grin like an idiot. 

"Ow, Ow, Ow, Ow," She said as she dropped the dryer to the counter. Oliver heard all of this and ran to the door, opening it without thought if she was decent or not. She was standing there in one of his gray shirts, hair almost dry and had her hands over her ears saying "Ow" over and over again. He went and tried to move her hands but she didn't want to, he tried to cup her face to get him to look at him but her eyes were closed. He didn't know what to do so he just rubbed his thumbs along her cheeks until she'd look at him.

"Oliver, please turn off that dryer, it's making my ears hurt." He dropped his hands and picked up the dryer, turning it off and looked back at her in surprise. She still had her eyes closed and ears covered but she said that it made her ears hurt. Could she hear now?

"Felicity?" He asked.

"What?"

"You can hear." He said simply.

"What?" She said looking up at him.

"You. Can. Hear."

"Oh, my, yea! I can! I can!" She said as she hugged him. His arms bounded around her and held her close. "You have no idea what it's like not to hear. Or I guess maybe you do?" She leaned back to look at him, "Where you ever deaf while you were away? You know what, it doesn't matter, I can hear! But seriously, no shooting range with Digg for a while or 4th of July fireworks for me. I've had enough explosions to last me a very long time. You know what this is dry enough, was that stir fry I saw?" He smiled at her babbling, nodded and backed up to put her on the counter. He looked down at her and her smile faded and her pupils dilated, "Oliver?" She whispered.

"You might be finished with your hair," He said huskily, "but we still have to bandage your wrists and ankles. It will take just a minute and then you can eat." She nodded her head and he grabbed the ointment and gauze from behind her. He started with her wrists and her breathing hitched when he got on his knee front of her and placed her foot on his leg to bandage her ankle. By the time he was finished with both, she could tell that it had an affect on him too. He stood up and placed the gauze on the counter, "Ready," He had to clear his throat, "ready to eat?" 

She nodded not trusting herself to speak and he went to pick her up. She shook her head and he backed up a step and helped her off the counter. She walked stiffly and slowly but she made it to the bed and he was right behind her with the tray. "Oh, my favorite!"

"I know, I don't know if it was Lance or Caitlin but I'll find out tomorrow and thank whichever one it was." She smiled up at him with a mouthful of food and nodded. After swallowing, she asked, "You want some?" He shook his head and she continued eating. Once she was done, he moved the tray back over to the desk and gave her some ibuprofen. She took them and he walked into the bathroom and filled the glass halfway and put it on her bedside table. Turning off her light, he walked to his side and got in, and turned his off. He lay like that for a couple of minutes until he felt Felicity shift towards him. He glanced in her direction and heard, 

"I thought you said we were going to talk when I could hear?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What can I say, apparently my muse wants to leave everything at a cliff hanger. One more chapter, I believe, and this story should be done. Thank you everyone who has stayed with me this long.


	12. Chapter 12

"Felicity, you know we've both had a long night, it can wait until morning." He said not moving.

"Oh," She said dejectedly and turns her back to him as she lays down.

Oliver heard the disappointment in her voice but he was still shaken that Merlyn had taken her when he thought she was safe. He now knew that no matter who he was, the Arrow or Oliver Queen, he had enemies and they would do anything to hurt him. He needed to think of a way for this to work before he talked to her. He knew that she'd say "my life, my choice" and wouldn't listen to him thinking he was being too over protective. He wanted this, he wanted Felicity in his life but he needed a plan to protect her as much as he could. Oliver was deep into his own thoughts when she gets out of bed and walks quickly to the bathroom. He doesn't think anything of it until he notices the light isn't on and then he hears her crying.

He jumps out of the bed and tries to open the door, it's locked so he knocks softly, "Felicity, what's wrong?" Guilt overwhelms him, she was kidnapped by Merlyn and he was in his own world instead of making sure that she was okay.

"Felicity, open the door, you're safe now. Merlyn can't hurt you anymore." That only made her cry harder.

He rests his forehead against the door and his hand is rubbing up and down, "Please Felicity, open the door. Everything is okay, I'm here, you're here, he can't hurt you anymore." Still no movement, all he could hear was her sobbing.

"Felicity," He begged softly, "please open the door. It's just shock, come out or let me come in, please."

She never let him in, he sat outside his bathroom door listening to her sob. He was tempted to break it down but he was scared it would upset her more. He eventually took up a post against the wall and just waited for her to come out. 

She didn't know how long she sat on the bathroom floor and cried. Even after all of this, he was going to find a way to refuse her. Just when she thought things were changing for the better, it ends up staying the same. She couldn't avoid him forever and she had an out, he thought she was crying because of the kidnapping. If he was still awake, she'd just play along with it. She opens the door and looks at the bed, he's not there. She notices movement to her right and he's getting up off the floor.

He puts his hands on her shoulders saying, "I'm so sorry, I didn't think, I should have known this would be hard for you."

She smiles a little telling him, "I think I'm good, just tired now. I'm going to go back to bed." She walks away and gets into bed with her back to his side.

He stands there watching her, finally moving to get into bed. He laid there not moving with his mind racing, trying to come up with any kind of plan to keep her safe. He suddenly realized that there was no plan, there couldn't be. He, both of his personas, had enemies and he would go crazy trying to plan for all of them. All he could do was love her, keep her with him as much as possible and hope that she would listen to him when he got all control freak on her. He fell asleep with a smile on his face, he couldn't wait until morning to talk.

Felicity lay on the other side of the bed planning her escape. Once she was back in her apartment, she'd have more control over her life. She didn't work with him at both of her jobs just the hero one and once she knew that they were safely on their way back at night, she could leave. He wouldn't press her about the distance between them and eventually it would be their new normal. She fell asleep, wanting to be awake and gone before he got a chance to give her another heartbreaking speech.

Felicity felt Fate was on her side come morning. She looked over at Oliver and he was sleeping soundly on his stomach with his arms wrapped around his pillow. She slid out of bed as quietly as she could and grabbed a pair of pants. She put her glasses on and went to pick up her suitcase. She didn't realize it was unzipped and when she grabbed the handle and pulled it off the chair, the lid smacked the chair loudly. Her back was to the bed but she knew without looking that it woke him up.

"Felicity, what are you doing?" He was leaning on one of his forearms looking at her with her suitcase in hand.

She refused to turn around, instead saying, "Going home." She heard him getting out of bed and was hurrying to put all of her clothes back into her suitcase.

"Why?" He whispered from right behind her.

"I can hear, remember. I just needed to be here until it returned." She said zipping up the suitcase and standing but not turning around to look at him.

"I thought we were going to talk?" He asked.

"What would be the point?" She replied sadly.

"Felicity," He said, grabbing her shoulders and turning her to face him, "there's a lot we need to talk about."

"So I can hear how you can't be with me again? Oliver, my heart can't take that speech one more time. Just let me go." The last word breaking on a sob.

"Why would you think I would say anything like that?" He looked at her in confusion.

"Why? You didn't want to talk last night! I cried in the bathroom because once again I saw something that wasn't there. You just felt responsible for me and took care of me until I could hear--"

"Felicity."

She ignored him and continued, "All those touches, the looks, sleeping with you, holding me close--"

"Felicity."

Those were just you being the Arrow. There's nothing special about me. I mean it could have been any woman and--"

Oliver grabbed her face and kissed her. She moaned and leaned into him until she seemed to remember where she was and broke away from the kiss.

"Oliver, what was that for?" She asked a little breathless.

"You wouldn't shut up." He said with a shrug.

She stood there gaping at him, looking like a fish out of water. He had a small smile on his face and at the moment she just wanted to slap it off, he wasn't listening to her. 

"Felicity," He took her suitcase and set it on the floor, "you were crying because I didn't want to talk last night?" She nodded her head, "I just didn't want to have this very serious conversation with us both exhausted."

"Oliver--" She pleaded.

"No," He raised a hand up, "let me finish." She nodded and he took both of her hands in his, "First of all, I love you and like I told you a couple of days ago, I've noticed the changes in our relationship. I want you, I want an us, I want all those touches, I want all those looks, I want to sleep with you, I want to make love to you, I want to build a life with you but I was scared of the enemies that I have. The Arrow and Oliver Queen have enemies and last night I was thinking that it would be good to have a plan to keep you as safe as I could. Then it hit me that there would be no way to plan for everything that they might throw at us. My back up plan was to tell you I love you, keep you as close to me as I could and hope that when my control freak tendencies came out that you would realize that I was doing it out of love and a need to keep you safe. I need to keep you safe Felicity, you are what makes my life worth living now. If you're not in it, I may as well go back to that island."

She had tears in her eyes and he wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing. He waited quietly for her to say something.

"I love you too." His eyes widened when she said that. "I know that's the first time I've told you that but you have to understand that every time you've told me you love me, you leave. My heart literally wouldn't be able to take you leaving me Oliver. It beats for you now and I want you, I want an us, I want those touches, I want those looks, I want to sleep with you, I want to make love to you and I want to build a life with you. I'm okay with you keeping me close and we'll talk about your control issues." She said with a smile, "I'm okay when it relates to my safety, I trust you with my life, but don't just do it. Talk to me about it, let me have some input into my safety, as much as you need me in your life, I need you in mine, we're partners."

He looked at her with awe. She healed him, his heart and soul would be okay because she loved him. 

Felicity saw the emotions going across his face and she tightened her fingers on his to get his attention, "So, you just going to look at me all day or do I only get kissed when I won't shut up?"

He just grinned and captured her lips with his. They kissed for a moment until she broke contact and walked around him and sat down in the middle of the bed. He looked at her quizzically until she said, "I'm in bed Oliver."

"I can see that Felicity."

"You said that you couldn't kiss me in bed because it wouldn't stop at just kissing." Realization hit him. "I'm in bed, Oliver."

"Yes, yes, you are." He said with a low growl.

He walked to the bed with a grinning Felicity staring at him. He grabbed her legs and jerked her to the side of the bed. She squeaked and fell backwards laughing. Oliver reached for the waistband of her jeans and when his warm hand touched her belly she let out a low moan. He unbuttoned and unzipped the pants, easing them down her legs, careful of her bandages. His shirt that she was wearing had scrunched up around her waist when he pulled her down the bed and let out a growl when he saw the red lace underwear. The pants flew over his shoulder and she scooted back up towards the headboard. He crawled onto the bed and up to her, catching her lips with his. He bit her bottom lip and she gasped and he took the opportunity to plunge his tongue into her mouth. The moans he was eliciting from her was making him hard. He dropped his hips into the cradle of hers and pressed down. He released her mouth as a groan came from him, she was warm and wet through her underwear. Her nails were scratching his back and neck and she raised her hips when he went to move away. He was kissing her neck and found the sweet spot behind her ear that when he flicked his tongue over it, she started panting. He leaned back on his knees and lifted her with him, stripping her shirt from her. All that remained between them was those damn red lace panties and his running pants.

"Felicity," he whispered as his tongue flicked out to caress her industrial piercing, "are you sure? I don't want to rush you into anything."

She shivered against him and tightened her grip on his shoulders, "Oliver, only you would think two years of foreplay is rushing. I love you and I want you to make love to me....now."

He kissed her with an urgency that she was more than willing to meet. Soft mewling sounds were coming from her and she was grinding on his lap. His lips left her mouth and moved down her neck. She stretched back and he started kissing down her chest towards her breasts, taking one pebbled nub into his mouth sucking while his hand softly caressed and teased the other one. She was fully laid back on the bed at this point and he seemed to be everywhere--teasing, tempting, tickling. 

"Oliver, please." She moaned.

He left her on the bed and got up to remove his pants. He slowly worked his way up her body, kissing her ankle, nipping at the sensitive skin behind her knee, ghosting his hands across the inside of her thighs causing her body to arch up to him. He took the opportunity to run his fingers under the top of her underwear and drag them off, tossing them over the side of the bed. She looked like a feast laid before him and he was a starving man.

Before he could taste her, he heard her say, "Oliver, we have all night but right now I need to feel you inside me. Please." He could never deny her anything so he crawled up her body and suddenly he was at her entrance, pushing inside.

"Oh my," Felicity breathed out as he slowly filled her up, "Oliver, I need--" She broke off when he slowly pulled back out.

"Why are you trying to kill me, going slow? Why--oh, that feels so good." She whispered in his ear.

"I just want this moment with you to last." He whispered back as he bit her earlobe.

"What part, oh oh," She moaned when he pushed back in, "what part of we have all night and for that matter every other night, do you not understand?"

He stopped when he was completely inside her and stared down into her face. "But we only have one first time together."

She moved her hips a little and heard his breath catch so she did it again and clenched her inner muscles at the same time. His eyes closed, he groaned and his head fell to her shoulder. "Felicity," he murmured as he thrust into her hard and fast.

"Oliver!" She screamed. He didn't get to go slow like he wanted to, hearing her say his name like that made him want to hear it again and again. She moaned his name when she finally went over the edge and two more quick snaps of his hips and he moaned hers. They lay there sweating and panting, calming their heartbeats, with Felicity running her fingertips up and down his spine. He leaned over a little to take some of his weight off of her and she looked over at him. He had the most peaceful look on his face as he stared back at her. "What are you thinking?" She asked him quietly rubbing her hand up and down his bicep.

"You're my home." He said.

"Oh, Oliver." She replied with tears in her eyes.

"Don't cry," He said as the pads of his thumb wiped away a stray tear, "no matter where we may go or what we do, you are my home."

"And you will always be my hero." She said kissing him lightly. She pulled back with a smile on her face, "So, um, you know that tub in there is big enough for two right?"

He cocked a brow at her, "Really?"

He laughed out loud when she wiggled her eyebrows and made a dash for the bathroom. He heard the water running and got up, walking over to the door. She was humming as she put towels near the tub and she looked over her shoulder at him. He smiled wickedly at her as he walked to her and kissed her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back.

His Felicity, the love of his life, the keeper of his light, she was so many things and he would make sure that for the rest of his life, she would know just how much she meant to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope that you liked it! I've never written a love scene before and to be honest I was nervous but I didn't want it to be graphic so I wrote just enough to get the story out.


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